News from Multiple Perspectives

La Fórmula 1 disputa, a partir de las 07:00 (hora peninsular española) la tercera carrera de la temporada 2026. El Gran Premio de Japón, que se celebra en el legendario circuito de Suzuka, verá una nueva batalla entre los Mercedes, con Kimi Antonelli en la pole y George Russell segundo . Carlos Sainz consiguió batir a su compañero de equipo en clasificación y meterse a la Q2, y saldrá en 16ª posición. Por su parte, el desastre de Aston Martin continúa, y Fernando Alonso partirá penúltimo , solo por delante de su socio en esta desventura, Lance Stroll.

Lugares y edificios emblemáticos de toda España como la Cibeles en Madrid, la Sagrada Familia en Barcelona y la Torre del Oro en Sevilla apagaron este sábado sus luces durante una hora para marcar la Hora del Planeta , el mayor movimiento global en defensa de la naturaleza, que cumple este sábado 20 años. De acuerdo con la organización ecologista Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF), impulsora hace dos décadas de la iniciativa, "millones de personas en más de 190 países y territorios de todas las latitude s" se unirán al acto, celebrado anualmente el último sábado del mes de marzo, entre las 20:30 y las 21:30 horas. Dentro del territorio español, según detalla la web de WWF, se unen al movimiento verde edificios reconocibles de todos los puntos del país. Dentro de la Comunidad de Madrid , han apagado sus luces el Palacio Real y el Panteón de España, la sede del Senado, el Real Jardín Botánico, el Instituto Cervantes, las fuentes de Cibeles y de Neptuno y la Puerta de Alcalá, entre otros. También se han quedado a oscuras durante ese tramo la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias de Valencia, el Puente de Triana y la Torre del Oro, en Sevilla, o la Sagrada Familia y el Castell de Montjuic, en Barcelona. Este movimiento surgió en Sídney (Australia) como "gesto simbólico para llamar la atención sobre el problema del cambio climático" con "un sencillo gesto que consiste en apagar las luces de edificios y monumentos durante una hora". La organización sostiene que lo que empezó siendo entonces algo simbólico se ha convertido en "el mayor movimiento global por la naturaleza y el clima, una chispa de esperanza que ha inspirado a ciudades, empresas y hogares en todos los continentes". En esta vigésima edición, WWF alude a los "innegables" impactos del cambio climático, especialmente en países como España aunque subraya que "la acción colectiva impulsa acuerdos, acelera la energía limpia, protege ecosistemas y recupera especies". Ese año, además, el movimiento por la defensa de la naturaleza llega en un marco de escalada del precio del combustible fósil provocado por la guerra en Irán.

La tercera jornada de protestas del movimiento 'No Kings' (No reyes) se celebró este sábado en Estados Unidos, donde tuvieron lugar más de 3.300 concentraciones , según los organizadores, lo que supone la mayor movilización hasta ahora contra el presidente, Donald Trump , la guerra en Irán y el Servicio de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE). La coalición de unos 400 grupos, como Amnistía Internacional, Indivisible, sindicatos y la Unión de Libertades Civiles Estadounidenses (ACLU), prevé superar las anteriores dos ediciones de este movimiento, la de octubre pasado, que reunió a 7 millones de asistentes en 2.700 eventos, y la de junio de 2025, con 5 millones de manifestantes en 2.100 sitios. Las marchas, en los 50 estados del país, condenaron el "autoritarismo" que perciben en el segundo mandato del presidente Trump, en particular por los presuntos abusos de ICE y los operativos migratorios, en los que dos ciudadanos estadounidenses fueron asesinados en enero en Minnesota. También se centraron en repudiar la "guerra ilegal" de Trump en Irán , que justo este sábado cumple un mes. "Los estadounidenses están hartos de este caos constante , y están listos para unirse en solidaridad contra los actos excesivos y atroces de la Administración de Trump contra las familias trabajadoras y los inmigrantes", expuso la coalición en un comunicado antes de la marcha. La principal concentración partió a las 14:00 horas del centro de Estados Unidos (20:00 hora peninsular española) en Minnesota, donde ICE y la Patrulla Fronteriza mataron en enero a Renee Good y Alex Pretti, dos ciudadanos estadounidenses, lo que agudizó la indignación nacional contra los operativos migratorios de Trump. En Mineápolis, la mayor ciudad de dicho estado, participaron el senador progresista Bernie Sanders, la actriz Jane Fonda y líderes de los mayores sindicatos del país, como Liz Schuler, presidenta de la Federación Estadounidense del Trabajo y Congreso de Organizaciones Industriales (AFL-CIO, en inglés). Las manifestaciones se produjeron mientras la desaprobación a Trump alcanza su mayor nivel de sus dos mandatos, pues un 59% de los estadounidenses reprueba su gestión , según reveló una encuesta de Fox News el miércoles.

Israel has created an environment of impunity for attacks on healthcare that has spread well beyond Gaza's borders.

At least 28 people are killed in Afghanistan and 17 in Pakistan after heavy rainfall causes severe flooding.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has called on Trump to end the war on Iran.

Attorney General Pam Bondi listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 2026-03-30T16:46:24Z MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration sued Minnesota and its school athletics governing body on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish the state for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. The lawsuit is part of a broader fight over the rights of transgender youth . More than two dozen states have laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports and some have barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Courts have blocked some of those policies. In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Justice Department alleges the state Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are violating Title IX, a federal law against sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money. “The Trump Administration does not tolerate flawed state policies that ignore biological reality and unfairly undermine girls on the playing field,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); A spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office was checking on a response. League officials did not not immediately reply to a request for comment. The administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San Jose State in California and the University of Pennsylvania. Minnesota officials have long resisted the federal push to ban trans athletes from girls sports. The state filed a preemptive lawsuit last April, saying Minnesota’s human rights act supersedes executive orders issued by President Donald Trump last year. The lawsuit also says the state is already in compliance with Title IX. A ruling is pending on the federal government’s motion to dismiss that case. The Justice Department said in a statement that Minnesota violates Title IX “by requiring girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and allowing boys to invade intimate spaces designated exclusively for girls, such as multi-person locker rooms and bathrooms.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); According to the Justice Department, Minnesota’s Department of Education receives more than $3 billion annually in federal funding from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. It says that funding is contingent on compliance with Title IX. The lawsuit asks a federal court in Minnesota to declare the state in violation of Title IX and order it to prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls’ prep sports. The civil rights offices at the Education and Health and Human Services put the state and league on notice last September that they faced legal action if they didn’t stop violating the federal law. STEVE KARNOWSKI Karnowski covers politics and government from Minnesota for The Associated Press. He also covers the ongoing fallout from the murder of George Floyd, courts and the environment, among other topics. twitter mailto

A TSA agent hands a passport back to a passenger at the security checkpoint in Pittsburgh International Airport Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) 2026-03-30T15:03:12Z After weeks of chaos in U.S. airports , the Transportation Safety Administration said the first paychecks in weeks are being sent as early as Monday to its workers, giving the beleaguered aviation system a boost of optimism. Wait times at some TSA security bottlenecks, such as the airport checkpoints in Atlanta and Houston, improved significantly Monday morning. But how long it will take for long security lines to consistently return to normal — and how long federal immigration officers will stay in airports — remains unknown as the busy spring break travel season continues. The DHS shutdown has resulted in not only travel delays but also warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stopped going to work. Those workers were just recovering financially since last fall’s extended government shutdown. AP AUDIO: Some wait times at airport bottlenecks are easing with TSA paychecks promised AP correspondent Julie Walker reports TSA agents will soon be paid but it may not mean immediate relief at airport security lines. Wait times still pushed beyond two hours at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Monday morning. Baltimore-Washington International Airport had minimal wait-times Monday morning, but continued to advise travelers to arrive three hours before their scheduled departure. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA officers immediately to ease the lines plaguing airports. The move came after Trump rejected bipartisan congressional efforts to fund the TSA while negotiations continue with Democrats, who have refused to approve more funding without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations . Democrats are demanding better identification for the officers, judicial warrants in some cases and for agents to refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Republicans and the White House have been willing to negotiate on some points, but the sides have yet to reach a final agreement. On Monday, there were few signs of progress on Capitol Hill, where the Senate held a short session without considering the House bill and resumed its two-week break. GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota said afterward that Senate Republicans are talking with Democrats and also the House as they try to find a way to funding DHS. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); TSA employees had gone without pay since DHS funding lapsed in February. The department’s shutdown reached 44 days on Sunday, eclipsing the record 43-day shutdown last fall that affected all of the federal government. The DHS shutdown has resulted in not only travel delays but also warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stopped going to work. Those workers had already endured the nation’s longest government shutdown last fall. Multiple airports experienced greater than 40% callout rates, and nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers quit during the shutdown. Trump deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to some airports a week ago to help with security as TSA callouts rose nationwide. How long they stay, White House border czar Tom Homan said, depends on how quickly TSA employees return to work. A TSA statement said the agency “has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce,” with paychecks arriving “as early as Monday.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The overall absentee rate among TSA officers scheduled to work dipped slightly on Sunday, according to DHS. The highest were concentrated at major airports that have seen consistently elevated absences lately. Those included BWI, both of Houston’s main airports; Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans; Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. ___ Associated Press reporters Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed. JOSH FUNK Funk is an Associated Press reporter who covers transportation including aviation safety and airlines along with all the major freight railroads. Funk also covers Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the impact of the ongoing bird flu outbreak, agriculture and other news out of the Midwest. twitter mailto JOHN SEEWER Seewer covers state and national news for The Associated Press and is based in Toledo, Ohio. twitter mailto

Referee Clay Martin (19), far left, talks with the officiating crew during an NFL football game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar, file) 2026-03-30T11:08:15Z PHOENIX (AP) — The NFL is moving forward with plans to begin hiring and training replacement officials in the next several weeks because negotiations with the referees’ union have been unsuccessful, two people with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because the conversations are private. The league and the NFL Referees Association have been negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement since the summer of 2024. The current CBA expires on May 31 . The NFL has increased its offer to a 6.45% annual growth rate in compensation over a six-year labor deal, but the NFLRA wants 10% plus $2.5 million for marketing fees, the people said. AP AUDIO: NFL set to begin hiring and training replacement officials, AP sources say A number of topics minus one controversial play will be up for debate at this year’s NFL meetings. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports. NFLRA executive director Scott Green told The Associated Press on Monday: “those numbers are not accurate.” He said negotiations with the league are similar to 2012 when a stalemate resulted in a 110-day lockout and replacement referees were used. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The league wants compensation tied to performance so that only high-performing game officials during the regular season share in the year-end bonus pool. The league is also seeking greater flexibility to ensure the best officials are on the field during the postseason. The current CBA includes seniority as a factor in making postseason assignments. Shortening the “dark period” is also a priority for the NFL. Currently, the league has no communication with game officials during the roughly three-month stretch between the Super Bowl and May 15. The goal is to increase access to game officials for rules discussions, video review, mechanics and appropriate football operations and committee meetings in order to improve the game and officials’ performance. The NFL is offering to hire some full-time officials, but one of the people said the union is resisting and is asking for “full-time pay and part-time hours.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Green told the AP the 2012 and 2019 CBA agreements included provisions that would allow some officials to serve in full-time roles. He said the league experimented with this in 2017, 2019 and 2020. “Each program ended because of their inability to manage it,” Green said. In a statement, Green said: “Apparently ‘League sources’ are continuing to put out false and misleading information instead of wanting to meet at the negotiating table. The bottom line is our officials work for the wealthiest sports league in America, with profits that far exceed any of the others. That’s normally a point of pride for the NFL. However, our officials are substantially under-compensated when compared to baseball and basketball umpires and referees. Our officials also aren’t provided the health care benefits that those at 345 Park Avenue have. As far as performance pay, we had ‘high performing officials’ who worked this year’s championship games and the Super Bowl who were paid less for those games than what they were paid for a regular-season game. That certainly isn’t rewarding performance, as the NFL claims is their goal.” In preparation for potential use of replacement officials, the NFL competition committee has proposed a contingency that would allow the replay center in New York to advise the on-field officials on any missed roughing the passer or intentional grounding penalty, as well as any act that would have led to an ejection had a penalty been called. NFL owners will vote on the proposal this week at the annual meeting . freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The NFL used replacement officials for the first three weeks of the 2012 season and resulted in several mistakes and wrong calls, including the disputed TD catch known as the “Fail Mary.” ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl ROB MAADDI Maaddi is senior NFL writer for The Associated Press. He’s covered the league for 24 years, including the first two decades as the Eagles beat writer. mailto

Cuatro hombres enmascarados se llevaron tres obras de Renoir, Cézanne y Matisse en medio de la noche y escaparon saltando una cerca, informaron las autoridades italianas.

El carguero llegó a aguas cubanas apenas unas horas después de que Donald Trump dijera que no tenía "ningún problema" con su llegada.

Analizamos qué están haciendo algunos países para enfrentar la crisis inflacionaria derivada de la guerra en Medio Oriente.

Ukraine's president says partners asked if the attacks could be "reduced" as prices soar due to the Iran war.

Rabiu Kwankwaso joins the ADC, a coalition poised to take on President Tinubu in the 2027 elections.

The Artemis II spacesuits are designed to protect the astronauts during launch and landing, as well as possible emergency scenarios.

Un haut dignitaire iranien livre ses conseils trading 🤔 "C'est très difficile de suivre ce conseil iranien sur les marchés boursiers". 🎙️ @LarigaudrieBFM 💬 @johnplassard

Ce lundi 30 mars, Jérémy Blackwell, gérant de fortune, s'est penché sur les valeurs sur lesquelles investir dans le cinéma, notamment Lionsgate, Kinepolis et Gaumont, dans l'émission BFM Bourse présentée par Antoine Larigaudrie. BFM Bourse est à voir ou écouter du lundi au vendredi sur BFM Business.

Ce lundi 30 mars, Marc Girault, co-fondateur de HMG, s'est penché sur Prodways, dans l'émission BFM Bourse présentée par Antoine Larigaudrie. BFM Bourse est à voir ou écouter du lundi au vendredi sur BFM Business.

Comedian Till Reiners übernahm für eine Ausgabe Joko Winterscheidts Quiz »Wer stiehlt mir die Show?« und ließ sie als Hommage an seine TV-Heimat ZDF als »Traumschiff«-Kopie in See stechen – Möwenschiss und Wunderkerzen inklusive.

Die beitragsfreie Mitversicherung steht zur Debatte, manchen Eheleuten drohen höhere Kosten. Merz setzt auf Rückkehr vieler Syrer. Und Trump droht Iran, Kraftwerke und Ölquellen »auszulöschen«. Das ist die Lage am Montagabend.

Europas größter Autohersteller will bessere E-Autos bauen – und zahlt Milliarden für die Hilfe des kalifornischen Start-ups Rivian. Doch bislang nutzt der Deal nur einer Seite.

Ein Jahr nach dem Sturz des syrischen Diktators Baschar al-Assad befindet sich das Land an einem entscheidenden Wendepunkt. Zwar wurden erkennbar Erfolge erzielt. Doch zugleich sind viele Herausforderungen noch ungelöst.

Fast 6000 Syrerinnen und Syrer stellten 2025 einen Antrag auf die freiwillige Ausreise in ihre Heimat. Dabei ist die Situation in Syrien weiterhin prekär.

Beim Besuch von Syriens Übergangspräsidenten Ahmed al-Scharaa in Berlin sprach sich Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz für die Rückkehr von Hunderttausenden Syrern in ihr Heimatland aus.

Die Regierung erwägt laut Medienberichten das Aus für die kostenlose Mitversicherung von Ehepartnern bei der Krankenversicherung. Sozialverbände und Opposition schlagen Alarm.

Experten wollen mit neuen und höheren Steuern auf Softdrinks, Spirituosen und Zigaretten das Gesundheitssystem sanieren. Verbraucher sollen ihr Einkaufsverhalten verändern, Hersteller ihr Angebot. Die Wirtschaft zweifelt an den Motiven.

Eine 41-Jährige hat in Schulen unterrichtet, ohne die dafür nötigen Qualifikationsnachweise zu haben. Nun muss sie für mehrere Jahre ins Gefängnis und eine sechsstellige Summe zurückzahlen. Bei der Urteilsverkündung wirkt die Frau erschüttert.

El canciller alemán, Friedrich Merz , ha afirmado este lunes que el 80% de los más de 900.000 ciudadanos sirios que residen en Alemania deberían regresar a su país de origen en los próximos tres años, durante un encuentro con el presidente de transición de Siria, Ahmed al Shara , en la capital alemana, Berlín. "A largo plazo, en los próximos tres años, y este también ha sido el deseo del presidente Al Shara , alrededor del 80% de los sirios que residen actualmente en Alemania deberían regresar a su país de origen ", ha señalado durante una rueda de prensa junto al mandatario sirio recogida por el canal Welt. El canciller alemán ha instado así a establecer un mecanismo de retorno "fiable" para repatriar a aquellos ciudadanos sirios que hayan cometido delitos y no cuenten con permisos de residencia válidos. Los repatriados, según Merz , "desempeñarán un papel importante en Siria tras años de destrucción de empresas, escuelas, jardines de infancia y hospitales". Feijóo se verá con Merz y Von der Leyen y se afana en desmontar el 'no a la guerra' de Sánchez Ana Belén Ramos El líder del PP asistirá la próxima semana a la reunión previa al Consejo Europeo, una cita clave en plena escalada de tensión. Feijóo se alinea con sus socios europeos mientras Sánchez opta por diferenciarse de los consensos comunitarios En este sentido, ha propuesto crear un grupo de trabajo conjunto en el que participarán las carteras de Interior y de Desarrollo Económico , especialmente en un momento en el que la situación del país ha mejorado sustancialmente más de un año después del derrocamiento del presidente Bashar al Assad . "La estabilidad política y el crecimiento económico de Siria serán decisivos para que la reconstrucción tenga éxito", ha argüido, agregando que la prioridad es crear un "clima favorable a la inversión" en el país, también para las empresas alemanas , "mediante reformas adecuadas con seguridad jurídica". Una semana en Irán es muy larga: Merz cambia de postura y advierte ahora sobre la guerra de Estados Unidos Nacho Alarcón. Bruselas Los socios europeos se han apresurado a tomar posturas en un conflicto muy volátil y con un presidente demasiado impredecible El canciller alemán también ha asegurado que ayudará al Gobierno sirio a reconstruir la infraestructura civil , en particular escuelas u hospitales. En total, Alemania destinará este año más de 200 millones de euros a la estabilización de Siria . Al Shara —que ha acudido previamente a una mesa redonda con varios representantes de importantes empresas alemanas— ha afirmado que hay 1,3 millones de sirios en Alemania, entre ellos alrededor de 6.000 médicos que trabajan en hospitales alemanes. "Estamos colaborando con nuestros socios en el Gobierno alemán para establecer un programa migratorio que permita a los profesionales sirios contribuir a la reconstrucción de su patria sin renunciar a la vida que han construido en Alemania en beneficio de quienes deseen quedarse ", ha indicado, según ha recogido la agencia de noticias estatal Sana. A primera hora del día, el dirigente sirio se ha reunido con el presidente alemán, Frank-Walter Steinmeier , marcando así el inicio del viaje y el primer encuentro bilateral entre los dos países en décadas en una visita que ha suscitado fuertes protestas en la capital . Varios aviones israelíes arrojan una sustancia química en Líbano tras hacerlo en Siria EFE La misión de paz de la ONU en el Líbano calificó de "inaceptable" la acción de Israel y avisó de que podría poner en riesgo tanto la salud de sus soldados como la de los civiles En el contexto del viaje oficial, el ministro de Exteriores sirio , Asad al Shaibani, se ha reunido con su homólogo germano, Johann Wadephul , en Berlín, con el que ha discutido cuestiones regionales y formas de potenciar las relaciones bilaterales.

El Consejo de Ministros tiene previsto otorgar este martes la nacionalidad española al opositor venezolano exiliado en Madrid Leopoldo López por la vía exprés. El Gobierno aprobará un real decreto para concederle la carta de naturaleza , una vía excepcional prevista para casos especiales, ha adelantado El Mundo y han confirmado a EFE fuentes del Ejecutivo. Leopoldo López no tiene pasaporte ni se le reconoce la nacionalidad en su propio país por lo que a finales de 2025 solicitó que se le concediera la española por esta vía tras intentarlo por la ordinaria. Dadas estas circunstancias especiales el Gobierno pretende concederle la nacionalidad española por la vía exprés con lo que Leopoldo López pasará a ser español por " carta de naturaleza ". El tercer hombre de Venezuela: ¿es Enrique Márquez el elegido por Trump? Héctor Estepa. Bogotá El ex candidato opositor, encarcelado tras las elecciones de 2024, se perfila como posible puente entre el chavismo y la oposición en la estrategia de la Casa Blanca El Ejecutivo ha accedido a la vía exprés por ser Leopoldo López una persona de extraordinaria relevancia y por motivos de política exterior.

Es un jueves cualquiera en la redacción de Informativos Telecinco y Carlos Franganillo (Oviedo, 1980) trabaja ya en el telediario de la noche. La actualidad bulle y el interés está en Washington y la Casa Blanca , precisamente donde él trabajó como corresponsal hace años. La Administración Trump es la excusa perfecta para hablar de la relación de los medios de comunicación con el poder , de la mentira, del ecosistema mediático y de los peligros de la desinformación. El periodista y presentador, nuevo protagonista del ciclo de entrevistas por el 25 aniversario de El Confidencial , ejerce de anfitrión en el plató de la cadena. La conversación es amena y fluida. Influencia, polarización, redes sociales... Franganillo no rehúye ninguna cuestión y todos los caminos llevan al mismo sitio: la credibilidad es nuestro mayor activo y ningún robot o inteligencia artificial sustituirá jamás el valor y la confianza de lo humano. "Nuestro gran reto es mantener nuestra esencia" , subraya. Hay mucho de qué hablar. No es lo mismo ser periodista que parecerlo. Y en este punto ubica las virtudes y debilidades del oficio. "La fortaleza que tenemos es la imagen y el prestigio de los profesionales, de quienes trabajamos un producto, en este caso la información. La contrastamos, la depuramos y se la ofrecemos trabajada al espectador ", reflexiona Franganillo, que excluye de la ecuación a los nuevos actores que no pueden hablar de prestigio o credibilidad. Pero conviene hacer autocrítica. "Hemos perdido influencia y hemos perdido relevancia. Todavía es muy importante la que tenemos, pero somos vulnerables en cuanto a que podemos perdernos en los vicios de estos nuevos lenguajes. Nuestro gran reto es mantener nuestra esencia. Adaptarnos a los nuevos canales, a los nuevos lenguajes, pero no querer ser una red social, no querer entrar en las dinámicas de esas nuevas tecnologías porque entonces el ciudadano ya no sabrá qué es un medio de comunicación y qué no lo es. Si resistimos y aportamos algo al debate diferente , con personalidad y con rigor, seguiremos llegando a la gente", asevera. La irrupción de influencers y supuestos gurús de la verdad, esa que no te cuentan los medios , parece haber distorsionado el valor del periodista. Franganillo advierte que el activismo y la propaganda siempre estuvieron ahí, aunque reconoce que la "frontera es cada vez más difusa". Por eso es importante separar el polvo de la paja: "Puedo entender que algunos activistas sean más atractivos para muchos ciudadanos porque piensan que ellos sí dicen la verdad. No tienen filtros, van directamente a la confrontación. Pero ahí nos toca hacer pedagogía. Cualquiera de nosotros tiene que distinguir qué es un periodista ". Carlos Franganillo sobre El Confidencial: 'Tiene una capacidad enorme de liderar la agenda'. (A. L.) El presentador pone un ejemplo que todo el mundo entenderá . "Si uno va al supermercado a comprar, debería tener unas nociones de lo que es saludable y lo que no lo es. Te puedes inflar a comer galletas todo el día, es tu elección, lo puedes hacer, obviamente. Pero seguramente acabarás enfermando o acabarás teniendo algún problema ". El Confidencial cumple 25 años en esa batalla . Un cuarto de siglo da para mucho, aunque Franganillo tiene claro cuál es el valor de la marca . "Tiene una capacidad enorme de liderar la agenda y lo hace con reportajes y trabajos de investigación muy profundos, que acaban marcando el debate nacional", señala, tras incidir en sus profesionales y firmas. "Hay opiniones muy trabajadas y que responden más a un trabajo de análisis , de aportar temas diferentes, de aportar enfoques muy distintos". Relación con el poder Carlos Franganillo llegó a Telecinco tras más de una década en los informativos de TVE, primero como corresponsal en Moscú y Washington y después como presentador del telediario en la edición de la noche. Narró desde el terreno la anexión de Crimea por Vladímir Putin o la irrupción de Donald Trump en la política tras el mandato de Barack Obama , lo que invita a pensar que conoce bien las injerencias del poder. Sin embargo, rebaja las expectativas sobre su experiencia en Rusia y marca una enorme distancia entre entonces y ahora. "El problema lo tenían los periodistas locales, que realmente publicaban información comprometedora", apunta, aunque reconoce que la tentación siempre está ahí y es cada vez más evidente. El periodista y presentador de Telecinco, Carlos Franganillo, posa para El Confidencial. (A. L.) "Las presiones del poder a la prensa siempre han existido, no son nuevas. Antes podían ser más taimadas, jugarse más entre bambalinas. Pero yo creo que los políticos, el poder y los gobiernos, han descubierto que encararse a la prensa a veces no supone un coste, sino que puede ser aliciente para ellos , dependiendo de qué electorado se dirijan. Por desgracia, han descubierto que puede ser rentable en algunas ocasiones", declara. La reflexión sirve para España, donde Franganillo identifica una implantación del trumpismo en todas las siglas , con independencia de izquierda o derecha . "Realmente por la fragmentación política que vivimos, por la incapacidad de sacar adelante reformas de calado que quizás necesitaría el país a medio o largo plazo, hace que muchas veces estemos en una espuma muy artificial. Temas que aparecen y desaparecen, relatos que entretienen y que luego no llegan a ningún sitio . Eso es tóxico y eso incrementa la desconexión de los ciudadanos respecto a la política. Es peligroso a medio plazo", añade el director de Informativos Telecinco. La falta de respeto a las instituciones y la banalización de la mentira son dos muestras muy claras de ese trumpismo, con un debate de trincheras en prácticamente cualquier tema. La pregunta que surge es el papel que desempeñan los medios en este clima de polarización , con la incógnita de qué fue antes, si el huevo o la gallina, si los periodistas o los políticos. No es fácil y seguramente tampoco haya una respuesta cien por cien acertada. Carlos Franganillo: '[Los medios] somos un actor importante de la polarización'. (A. L.) "Creo que son las dos cosas a la vez. Somos un actor muy importante de la polarización, por desgracia . Y creo que ahí confluyen muchos aspectos. Muchas veces, por una cuestión incluso industrial, económica, pues es verdad que la polarización o el debate estridente y ruidoso es un reclamo. Es un producto muy barato también. Los medios a veces, quizá por una cuestión más económica, hemos caído en la tentación y el abuso de ese tipo de posiciones , de buscar la confrontación y, si no la hay, forzarla incluso, de generar espectáculo porque sabemos que la atención cada vez es un bien más demandado. Es un círculo vicioso ". Pero la actualidad también manda en el debate sobre el oficio y es imposible no hablar de inteligencia artificial . Como en el resto de reflexiones, Franganillo huye de tremendismos y apela a lo mismo: al valor de lo intangible y la credibilidad de los profesionales. "Pienso que cada vez lo humano va a tener más importancia. A la hora de transmitir hechos o transmitir algo que está pasando, se me hace muy difícil pensar que no vamos a querer tener al otro lado un ser humano con sus emociones , con su punto de vista, con su credibilidad labrada a lo largo de los años, que nos sirva también como una especie de marca de agua, de autenticidad".

La ministra Margarita Robles alerta de la grave situación tras el fallecimiento de dos soldados indonesios  Leer

Sorpresa en la oposición ya que es incompatible con optar a la Presidencia de su país, mientras satélites revolucionarios predican que de este modo asume "su derrota"  Leer

El jugador rompió a llorar de alegría en el green del 18 después de varios años de lucha contra la enfermedad  Leer

Más de un año después de la caída de Bachar el Asad y el fin de la guerra civil, el canciller alemán, Friedrich Merz, quiere acelerar el regreso de los más de 900.000 sirios que aún siguen en Alemania, priorizando a aquellos que no tienen un permiso de residencia válido y al grupo “problemático de sirios con antecedentes penales” a los que quiere repatriar con “carácter urgente”. Seguir leyendo

El juez que investiga una supuesta trama protagonizada por Cristóbal Montoro y su antiguo despacho , Equipo Económico, para conseguir legislación a medida para empresas gasistas ha reclamado la información bancaria completa del que fuera ministro de Hacienda del Gobierno de Mariano Rajoy (2011-2018) y otra veintena de personas, entre físicas y jurídicas, incluido el bufete que ayudó a fundar, tras llamar la atención sobre los pagos efectuados a exsocios y sus familias. Seguir leyendo

Una ráfaga de disparos irrumpió en la mañana tranquila de la ciudad argentina de San Cristóbal, 600 kilómetros al norte de Buenos Aires. Un alumno ingresó este lunes armado en la Escuela Normal Mariano Moreno N°40 y, mientras los estudiantes se aprestaban a izar la bandera, mató a un compañero e hirió a otros dos. “Nunca había pasado algo así”, dijo Maximiliano Pullaro, el gobernador de la provincia de Santa Fe. Seguir leyendo

Aus Solidarität mit Collien Fernandes haben am Montagnachmittag Frauen und Männer gegen digitale sexuelle Gewalt protestiert.

Am Sonntag war bereits ein Soldat der UN-Friedenstruppe durch ein explodierendes Geschoss getötet worden – nach libanesischen Berichten war es ein israelisches.

Bouldern erfordert Kraft und Konzentration. Weil die Schrauber komplizierte Routen vorgeben, rutschen viele Teilnehmer der deutschen Meisterschaft ab. Am Ende kommt es zu einem spektakulären Finale.

Israeli officials are warning that Iran’s ongoing internet blackout is shaping the battlefield in ways that extend far beyond cyberspace, limiting visibility into the impact of U.S. and Israeli strikes while tightening the regime’s grip on its own population. Multiple Israeli sources told Fox News that the blackout is not only restricting information from leaving Iran but also preventing citizens from organizing internally, at a time when pressure on the regime is mounting. Attempts by civilians to access the internet through satellite services such as Starlink have been disrupted through jamming, according to Israeli officials, while hundreds of individuals suspected of using such terminals have been detained. "This is a blackout on truth," a senior Israeli intelligence official told Fox News. " The regime is hiding reality from its own people. They don’t want the Iranian people to see how badly they’re getting hit." ISRAEL HAMMERS IRANIAN INTERNAL SECURITY COMMAND CENTERS TO OPEN DOOR TO UPRISING The information vacuum inside Iran is being filled by state-controlled narratives, according to the official. "Iranians only know what they see on TV channels controlled by the Islamic regime, which falsely shows the U.S. and Israel being destroyed," the Israeli official said. But the impact goes beyond perception. The blackout is also affecting behavior on the ground. "And it’s not just about what people see, it’s about what they can do," the official said. "Cutting the internet stops people from communicating, from sharing what’s really happening, and from organizing." The restrictions come as the Iranian regime faces both external military pressure and lingering internal unrest following a brutal crackdown earlier in 2026. In January, security forces opened fire on nationwide protests, with reports suggesting the toll could be more than 30,000 killed in a matter of days. Against that backdrop, Israeli officials say the blackout reflects the regime’s fear of renewed unrest. "The Iranian people are one of the things the regime fears most," the official said. "That’s why this blackout was such a priority." IRAN REGIME HIDES IN BUNKERS AS CIVILIANS LEFT EXPOSED WITHOUT ADEQUATE BOMB SHELTERS OR SIRENS The result, according to Israeli officials, is a war that is unfolding largely out of public view. "This is one of the least visible wars in modern history because very little footage is coming out," the official said. "When this blackout is lifted, the full extent of the damage to the regime will become clear. Right now, we’re only seeing a small glimpse of just how badly they’re being decimated." Israeli sources also linked the blackout directly to high-value military targets. The U.S. and Israel, the official claims, "have taken out 25 senior commanders from the MOIS," referring to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. "The majority (were) eliminated in the opening strike when they gathered for a meeting," the official said, adding that those targeted were involved in managing the blackout. The official identified Esmail Khatib as among those killed, describing him as "the minister of Intelligence who was the guy who signed off on the blackout." IRAN MOVES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN CRYPTO DURING NATIONWIDE INTERNET BLACKOUT, REPORT REVEALS U.S. analysts say the information domain is becoming a central front in the conflict. John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, wrote on X that "Iran has repeatedly shut down internet access to control its population. That capability can be reversed." Spencer argued that external actors could shift the balance by targeting regime communications while enabling civilian connectivity. "Disrupt regime command networks while enabling connectivity for the population through external systems. Information becomes a weapon," he wrote. "Control of narrative, coordination, and awareness shifts away from the regime." He also pointed to underlying instability inside Iran, noting that the country’s population is "over 85 million, young, urban, and repeatedly discontent," with protest activity suggesting that a significant portion opposes the regime. "Until now, civilians have largely been told to shelter," Spencer wrote. "That could change." Fox News Digital reached out to the Iranian mission to the United Nations, which responded, "no comment." Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s vast missile system is the brainchild of the U.S.-designated state-sponsor of terrorism, the communist North Korea regime , which works hand in glove with Iran, according to one of the world’s leading experts on the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. "The missile launched at Diego Garcia was a Musudan. The Iranians bought 19 of these from the North Koreans and took delivery in 2005. They have had this capability since 2005 — and this is no ‘secret weapon,'" Bruce Bechtol, who co-authored with Anthony Celso the groundbreaking book "Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership Between Iran and North Korea," told Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital reported last week that Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia—roughly 2,500 miles from Iran. TRUMP PROVEN RIGHT ON IRAN'S LONG-RANGE MISSILE CAPABILITY AS REGIME TARGETS US-UK BASE, EXPERTS SAY Bechtol said, "The most important threat from Iran as the war with the United States and Israel has evolved has been the ballistic missiles, launched not only at U.S. facilities and Israeli cities, but also at neighboring Islamic countries. Thus, it is important to consider this capability and where Iran got it." He said, "The short-range ballistic missiles that Iran has launched at key U.S. facilities and at neighboring Arab states include a key system – the 'QIAM.' The QIAM was developed and improved with North Korean assistance… North Korea has proliferated a lot to Iran that we are seeing right now in the war." The joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran’s regime, the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department, has entered its fifth week. Bechtol, who is a professor of political science in the Department of Security Studies at Angelo State University in Texas, noted that, according to the Wisconsin Project, North Korea had constructed a large missile test facility at Emamshahr, a city in the Fars Province in Iran , and a tracking facility at Tabas in South Khorasan province. He said North Korea aided Iran with crucial technology "for targets farther away from Iran." "The North Koreans proliferated around 150 No Dong systems to Iran in the late 1990s. The Iranians were apparently very happy with the missiles the North Koreans provided them, and, following the earlier precedent of the Scud C factory, contracted with Pyongyang to build a No Dong facility in Iran." AFTER THE STRIKES, HOW WOULD THE US SECURE IRAN’S ENRICHED URANIUM? Bechtol continued, "The Iranians called this ‘new’ missile the Shahab-3. The Shahab-3 is almost an exact copy of the No Dong. Once the Shahab-3 was up and running, the North Koreans moved forward with the Iranians in improving its range and lethality." He said, "With assistance from the North Koreans, the Iranians were then able to produce (at the No Dong facility) the Emad and the Ghadr. The Emad has a range of 1,750 kilometers (approx 1,087 miles) and the Ghadr has a range of 1,950 kilometers (approximately 1,212 miles.) The Iranians have used these two systems to target not only Israel, but their Arab neighbors (including U.S. bases located in these countries) throughout the ongoing first stages of this conflict." Bechtol said the North Koreans spawned an Iranian missile warhead that weighs a ton and a half to two tons on the powerful Khorramshahr-4. "There is another system capable of hitting Israel that has been even more lethal than any of the systems described thus far. This system is called the ‘Khorramshahr,’ and the fourth version of this system, appropriately called the ‘Khorramshahr-4,’ has been proven to carry a warhead larger than any other in Iran’s missile inventory, armed with what appears to be cluster munitions," he said. He described the strategic partnership, noting : "North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer. North Korea proliferates weapons systems, technology, parts and components, technicians, engineers and specialists and military capabilities (such as the building of underground facilities) to Iran. Iran pays North Korea with cash and oil. Simple as that." Bechtol said the only way to stop this is through sanctions enforcement against North Korea. "The sanctions that are needed are already on the books. But the USA and our key allies need to robustly enforce them. We need to go after banks, front companies and cyber entities in order to squeeze the money and contain or destroy the supply chain." He said, "More emphasis needs to be placed, and more action needs to be taken using the Proliferation Security Initiative — an underused aspect of preventing North Korea's arms from flowing to rogue nations and terrorist groups. If you cut off the supply chain, you cut off the proliferation ."

The U.S. government will allow a Russian tanker full of crude oil to reach Cuba , effectively easing a blockade that has pushed the island into an energy crisis, according to a report. The Russian-flagged tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, was headed for Cuba on Sunday, carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil, The New York Times reported, citing a U.S. official who had been briefed on the matter. The tanker Anatoly ⁠Kolodkin was just off the eastern tip of Cuba on Sunday, ship tracking data showed. "We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload, because they need … they have to survive," President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday when asked about the report. CUBA'S ENTIRE ELECTRICAL GRID COLLAPSES, LEAVING WHOLE ISLAND WITHOUT POWER "If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not," he added. Trump had sought to restrict oil shipments to Cuba in an effort to pressure its government. The U.S. government has temporarily eased some sanctions on Russian oil shipments to help stabilize global energy markets amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran that began last month. CUBAN OFFICIAL REVEALS MILITARY 'PREPARING' FOR CONFLICT AFTER TRUMP CONSIDERS 'TAKING' ISLAND The Anatoly Kolodkin, which departed from Primorsk, Russia, could soon dock at the Matanzas port in Cuba if it remains on its current path, according to tracking services MarineTraffic and LSEG. The oil would provide significant relief to Cuba, where President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said fuel shortages have persisted for months, forcing strict gas rationing and deepening the island’s energy crisis. The U.S. capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January stripped a key Cuban ally who had been providing oil to the island on favorable terms. The Trump administration then blocked all Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and vowed to impose punitive tariffs on any third country that supplied shipments to the island, forcing Mexico to stop its exports to Cuba. Another ship, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, was also carrying about 200,000 barrels of Russian fuel to Cuba, but was rerouted to Venezuela.

Le président américain agite la menace de frappes massives sur les infrastructures énergétiques iraniennes, tout en affirmant que des discussions "sérieuses" sont en cours.

L'animateur avait été condamné en février 2025 à 12 mois de prison avec sursis dans cette affaire.

Benjamin Locoge, rédacteur en chef à l'hebdomadaire "Paris Match", était l'invité du 11/13 sur franceinfo, lundi 30 mars, afin d'aborder la future annonce du retour de la star québécoise sur scène.

Bajo el estruendo de las sirenas antiaéreas por la amenaza de misiles iraníes y en una sesión que se prolongó hasta la madrugada, la Knéset (el Parlamento israelí) ha aprobado el mayor presupuesto de su historia. Con esta maniobra, el primer ministro Benjamín Netanyahu logra esquivar el abismo de unas elecciones anticipadas. La cifra total asciende a 270.000 millones de dólares (más de 230.000 millones de euros), una suma récord en la que el Ministerio de Defensa y los sectores ultraortodoxos han resultado ser los grandes favorecidos. Seguir leyendo...

España cierra su espacio aéreo a los aviones implicados en la guerra de Irán

El jefe de la unidad de bomberos forestales de Alzira que ha declarado como testigo esta mañana en el juzgado de Catarroja ha afirmado que el día de la dana “había unidades cercanas que no se movilizaron”, para añadir a continuación que “habría que preguntar a Basset (jefe de bomberos del consorcio provincial) por qué no se movilizaron las de Xátiva o las de Castelló de Rugat, a Rótova. Todo unidades de bomberos forestales. Al barranco del Poyo sé que mandaron a una unidad de Buñol”.  Seguir leyendo...

L’ex-policier Cédric Prizzon est soupçonné du meurtre de sa compagne et de son ex-conjointe dont les corps ont été retrouvés enterrés au Portugal après leur disparition en Aveyron.

Après la réélection dans un mouchoir de poche du maire (LR) Rémi Muzeau, la candidate PS Julie Martinez a déposé un recours pour faire annuler le scrutin. Des captures de mails et SMS auxquelles nous avons eu accès alimentent le doute. L’édile en place, lui, nie en bloc.

DÉCRYPTAGE - À la tête d’une importante délégation, le président et son épouse espèrent relancer la relation bilatérale avec ce pays qui admire l’art de vivre de la France mais doute de son dynamisme économique.

Deux casques bleus ont été tués et deux autres ont été blessés, dont un grièvement, lundi, par une « explosion d’origine inconnue » qui a détruit leur véhicule près de Bani Hayyane, annonce la Force intérimaire des Nations unies au Liban.« Il s’agit du deuxième incident mortel au cours des dernières vingt-quatre heures », ajoute-t-elle, après celle d’un casque bleu indonésien dimanche.

Le réalisateur Jean Bulot retrace le parcours de ceux qui furent engagés volontaires auprès de l’Allemagne nazie.

Tandis qu’Orange va commencer, mardi 31 mars, à éteindre la 2G dans plusieurs communes, le régulateur des télécoms alerte sur le sort des 2,4 millions d’utilisateurs de cette technologie.

L’humanité travaille la vigne depuis au moins 2 500 ans, révèle une étude scientifique française qui a séquencé le génome de pépins de raisin parfois vieux de 4 300 ans. Le directeur de recherche au CNRS Ludovic Orlando explique à «Libération» que ce travail viticole précoce a permis de faire émerger des cépages conservés à l’identique pendant des siècles.

Face aux flots ininterrompus de propos racistes ciblant Bally Bagayoko sur la chaîne de Bolloré, le président de SOS Racisme interpelle l’Arcom, les responsables politiques qui relaient les thèses de l’extrême droite et les médias qui invisibilisent la parole antiraciste.

L’éminent violoniste allemand s’apprête à interpréter, à Paris, le concerto moderniste de Frank Martin, inspiré par «la Tempête» de Shakespeare. Occasion d’évoquer, avec lui, sa carrière et le monde d’aujourd’hui.

Doris Coulson remained spirited even as her illness progressed — watching cooking shows on TV, working crossword puzzles and wheeling herself down the hallways of her nursing home to show off her granddaughter when she came to visit. Coulson had been admitted to Hillview Post Acute and Rehabilitation Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January 2016, after Parkinson’s disease left her at risk of choking when she swallowed. That April, the facility’s operations were taken over by Skyline Healthcare, a New Jersey-based company that was buying up nursing homes across the country. Medical records for the retired cardiac nurse, then 71, were marked “NPO” — nothing by mouth. Then that September, a nursing assistant found Coulson unresponsive and hanging off the side of her bed, her skin ashy and her breathing shallow. She was taken to a hospital in a coma and died several days later. The chief cause of death was aspiration pneumonia, according to her death certificate. “The doctors said they found scrambled eggs in her lungs,” said her daughter Melissa Coulson. Coulson’s death and the circumstances surrounding it led her family to file a lawsuit against Skyline and its owner, the New Jersey businessman Joseph Schwartz, alleging that cost-cutting at Hillview left Coulson without the care she needed. It was one of several lawsuits tied to patient outcomes as Schwartz’s empire expanded and then unraveled, with much of the chain collapsing by 2018. Schwartz didn’t contest the case, and a judge in 2020 awarded nearly $19 million in damages. Coulson’s family has never been able to collect. Schwartz had by that time relinquished all of his property in Arkansas, so there was nothing left in the state for the family’s lawyer to try to seize, nor was there enough information about assets he may hold in other states. Coulson’s civil action was one of several efforts to hold Schwartz accountable for what happened at his nursing homes. In perhaps the most sweeping move, federal prosecutors in New Jersey charged Schwartz with orchestrating a $39 million payroll tax scheme connected to his nursing home empire. He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees’ benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison. But Schwartz served just three months. In November, President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon, negating his criminal conviction — part of a series of clemency decisions in the president’s second term that have benefited well-connected defendants, including political allies with access to the White House and individuals like Schwartz who had spent heavily on lobbyists . Often overshadowed in the attention around Trump’s decisions is the emotional and financial devastation left behind. Few clemency decisions illustrate that more clearly than the case of Schwartz, who paid himself millions of dollars from his nursing homes while diverting tens of millions owed to taxpayers and employees, and who has failed to satisfy at least three multimillion-dollar judgments awarded to grieving families. In the Coulson case, Schwartz later claimed he never received key filings and had mistaken the complaint for the same lawsuit first filed in 2017, which he believed his insurer had already handled before it was withdrawn and refiled. And he argued the company that took over Hillside and canceled insurance coverage — not him — was the proper defendant. He also said he was representing himself, in poor health and isolating because of COVID-19 risks. A judge denied his request to put the case on hold. Kevin Marino, a lawyer representing Schwartz and Skyline, said he and Schwartz had no comment. He did not respond to a follow-up email containing a detailed list of questions. Trump has granted clemency to several figures in major health care fraud cases. In 2020, he commuted the 20-year federal prison sentence of Philip Esformes, a Florida nursing home magnate convicted in a scheme that prosecutors said involved about $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims. The White House cited allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, echoing claims from Esformes’ defense that prosecutors improperly invaded attorney-client privilege by reviewing documents seized in an FBI raid. Although appeals courts did not overturn the conviction based on this argument, Esformes had support from two former U.S. attorneys general. That same year, Trump commuted the sentence of Judith Negron, convicted in a $200 million Medicare fraud case . Trump’s clemency grant said the “ends of justice” did not require her to serve another two decades in prison. Lawyers for Esformes and Negron did not respond to requests for comment. Trump has also nominated nursing home owner Benjamin Landa as ambassador to Hungary. The nomination has remained in place even as a facility Landa co-owns faces a federal audit alleging there were more than $31 million in Medicare overpayments. Landa is suing the administration to block repayment. An attorney for Landa did not respond to a request for comment but has previously denied wrongdoing by his client, saying in a statement the issues identified in the audit occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when nursing homes were in the midst of a crisis and that the company was committed to patient care. Schwartz’s case was highlighted by the far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer, who had previously worked with the lobbyists Schwartz hired to press his case in Washington. Loomer published a series of posts on X that falsely claimed that Schwartz was not responsible for the tax violations, that he had been unfairly blamed for the collapse of his nursing home chain and that he had paid back “every dime.” She also accused the judge in the case of antisemitism against Schwartz, who is Jewish, though she offered no evidence. She also said Schwartz was in “extremely poor health” and that prison would be a “death sentence,” though the judge found no evidence that Schwartz was unfit for prison. Versions of Loomer’s narrative surfaced in the White House’s explanation for the pardon. A White House official said in response to questions from ProPublica that Schwartz “relied on a third-party entity” to manage tax filings, that he paid restitution, that no funds were used for personal enrichment, that the sentence was exceptionally harmful to a 65-year-old man in deteriorating health and that it was “an example of over prosecution.” But those claims are contradicted by the court record and Schwartz’s own guilty plea, in which he acknowledged responsibility for the unpaid payroll taxes. While he repaid $5 million, that covered only a fraction of what he owed. Federal prosecutors said that under Schwartz’s plea agreement, the IRS could have pursued the remaining balance — an effort that now appears far less likely following the pardon. And his three-year sentence fell in the middle of the range recommended under federal sentencing guidelines. Asked about those statements and how they square with the court record, the White House did not respond. Schwartz’s faith also became part of the Trump administration’s public celebration of the decision. Alice Marie Johnson, who has advised the White House on clemency, wrote online that the pardon meant Schwartz could now join his family for Shabbat, and weeks later, he attended the White House Hanukkah party . Schwartz paid more than $1 million to lobbyists to press the White House, the Justice Department and Congress on his behalf — including on his efforts to secure a pardon — according to lobbying disclosure forms. The White House has insisted that paid lobbyists have no influence on pardons. Loomer said she was not paid for her advocacy. She said she heard about Schwartz’s case in a group chat with members of an orthodox Jewish outreach movement, who asked her to look into it. She also pointed to her influence within the Trump administration, citing several instances in which she publicly urged specific actions that the president ultimately took. She said Schwartz approached her at the Hanukkah party to thank her. Melissa Coulson said Trump’s pardon of Schwartz reinforced her belief that justice is not applied equally. “Apparently he’s got money somewhere,” Coulson said. Her lawyer hopes to find it. Melissa Coulson and her family filed a wrongful death case against Skyline Healthcare and Joseph Schwartz over the death of her mother, Doris Coulson, who died at Hillview Post Acute and Rehabilitation Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Houston Cofield for ProPublica From the outside, Schwartz’s operation doesn’t look like a corporate empire. The headquarters of Skyline’s fast-growing nursing home network was a second-floor office above a pizza parlor in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. Schwartz entered the nursing home business in the late 2000s and formed Skyline to acquire and operate skilled nursing facilities, initially in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He sold a Florida-based insurance business in 2015 for $22 million, allowing him to rapidly expand Skyline. By 2017, Skyline and the related companies Schwartz controlled cared for approximately 15,000 residents in roughly 100 facilities in 11 states. In a 2017 deposition in a wrongful death suit in Philadelphia, Schwartz defended the care at his facilities as “superb” while distancing himself from day-to-day operations by saying he relied on facility-level administrators and nursing directors. The suit was settled without Schwartz admitting wrongdoing. In the deposition, Schwartz minimized reports of staffing shortages and unpaid bills as simple business “disagreements.” Asked about the facility’s one-star federal staffing ratings from 2010 to 2014 — the lowest possible score under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Five-Star system — Schwartz said he recalled having “a good star rating” and that his nursing homes had tried their hardest to provide as much staffing as possible, insisting that they were “very, very, very, very, very compliant” and that residents were “happy and satisfied.” The collapse was swift. Skyline facilities failed to make payments for food and medical supplies, and cut hours for nursing home staff. At the same time, Schwartz began to siphon money from multiple sources — overbilling Medicaid and withholding millions of dollars in payroll taxes from workers’ paychecks but never sending the money to the IRS, he admitted later. What’s more, Schwartz paid himself $5 million as what one federal prosecutor described as a “ghost employee” at some of his facilities. As conditions in the homes deteriorated, health officials in at least six states from Nebraska to Massachusetts seized or transferred control of his facilities or relocated residents. In South Dakota, a vice president who oversaw 18 Schwartz-owned nursing homes began sending increasingly desperate emails to state health officials, according to court records. Debbie Menzenberg wrote in the emails that Schwartz’s son Louis, an executive officer for Skyline, had called her to say the state “has to do something — there is no money — he told me to discharge residents???” Then Menzenberg’s emails to the state became more urgent: “I need water paid at Bella Vista and Prairie Hills today or it will be SHUT OFF — Skyline is SILENT!!!” “Disconnect notice came today for Pierre May 8 electric.” “I NEED HELP!!!!!” “CEO’s are aware of stuff going on!!!” Neither Menzenberg nor Louis Schwartz could be reached for comment. Debbie Menzenberg, a vice president who oversaw 18 Schwartz-owned nursing homes in South Dakota, sent desperate emails to state health officials seeking help as Skyline collapsed. Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica A group of employees at Skyline nursing homes across the country later filed a lawsuit alleging that Skyline withheld more than $2 million in health insurance premiums from more than 1,000 workers’ paychecks but failed to provide coverage. That left some of his employees with denied health insurance claims and mounting medical bills. Schwartz has not defended himself against the claim, and a lawyer for the employees has asked a judge to award a $2.4 million default judgment. The case remains pending in federal court in New Jersey. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, an activities director at a nursing home in Arkansas, said that she was left with more than $50,000 in medical bills after surgery on her back and neck. She said she couldn’t pay the bills and that the debt ultimately wrecked her credit. “They withheld over $1,000 from my paycheck for insurance premiums and did nothing with them except abscond with them,” said the employee, Margaret Gates. Under Schwartz’s ownership, residents suffered — and some died. In a lawsuit against Schwartz, Zelma Grissom’s family said the conditions at Hillview, the same facility where Doris Coulson was living, left residents without even basic care. The mother of six had entered the facility after brain surgery left her unable to move on her own and dependent on staff to turn her in bed. Grissom’s son, LeVester Ivy, said Hillview appeared chronically short-staffed. One day, Ivy said, a wound-care nurse called the family into his mother’s room and showed them a severe pressure sore that had developed after Grissom hadn’t been turned regularly. Surgeons had to cut away infected tissue, leaving a large open wound. After that, he said, her health spiraled. “She started getting infection after infection,” Ivy recalled. During one late-night ambulance transfer, he said, an emergency medical worker quietly told him how his mother had arrived. “She pulled me to the side and told me how dirty and nasty, how wet she was,” Ivy said. The family’s lawyers said she died of sepsis from the bedsores that Hillview caregivers allowed to become infected. A judge in February 2023 ordered Schwartz to pay Grissom’s family $15.7 million after neither Schwartz nor any representative challenged the family’s wrongful death claim. Schwartz later tried to overturn the ruling, claiming poor health, lack of notice and that he was merely an investor with no role in operations, but a judge rejected the effort. Ivy said the family sued Schwartz because “we wanted nobody else to go through the things we had to go through.” Schwartz has not paid the judgment, and the family’s lawyer said in an interview that he does not have enough information about Schwartz’s assets to try to recover the money. The suffering described in cases like Coulson’s and Grissom’s was not part of the tax case against Schwartz that landed him in prison. But it loomed over the proceedings when he appeared for sentencing in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, last April. Schwartz had pleaded guilty to withholding $39 million in payroll taxes from his employees and failing to send the money to the IRS. The investigation never determined where the money went. Prosecutors said they were not able to establish that Schwartz had used the money on a lavish lifestyle. But they said they never completed a forensic accounting of his finances, which moved money through more than 200 bank accounts. They said they believed Schwartz still controlled more than $50 million in assets. Doris Coulson in an October 2014 photo with her Chihuahua, Paddy Cake. Coulon’s family filed a wrongful death suit against Skyline and Schwartz and a judge in 2020 awarded them nearly $19 million in damages. Courtesy of Melissa Coulson His attorneys argued that his actions were not an attempt at personal enrichment but the result of a businessman who expanded too quickly, fell behind on bills and then made a series of financial decisions — some of them admittedly criminal. But, they argued, he was simply trying to save his company. Schwartz apologized for his conduct and told U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton that he “always tried to live the right way” and set a good example. But he acknowledged that he’d failed to do so in this instance. Wigenton said she could not understand why prosecutors had agreed to a sentence of just a year and a day. Even years into the investigation, she noted, it remained unclear where much of the money had gone. And because so many of the letters submitted on Schwartz’s behalf described him as a brilliant businessman, Wigenton said the “number of layers and businesses and LLCs that were created” made it hard to see him as someone who had been fooled or confused. “Not a single asset is in your name,” she said. “Not one.” Wigenton said the case was not merely an abstract tax case, citing the collapse of Skyline’s nursing homes and the harm to patients. She said there was a need for deterrence in sentencing. The judge sentenced Schwartz to three years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $5 million — the amount he had paid himself as a ghost employee — which he did. The remaining taxes were not part of the criminal sentence because prosecutors said they were used to fund his collapsing business rather than for personal enrichment. They said the IRS could try to recover the rest through a civil case. Trump’s pardon wiped away Schwartz’s federal prison sentence — and likely any IRS effort to claw back the rest of the stolen taxes. But it did not affect a separate Arkansas state conviction for Medicaid fraud and tax evasion, in which Schwartz admitted submitting false and misleading information that inflated the Medicaid rates paid to his facilities in the state. A judge in Little Rock had sentenced Schwartz to one year in state prison, ordered to run at the same time as his federal term. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, who had announced Schwartz’s conviction as a signature achievement, made clear after Trump’s pardon that the state prosecution stood on its own. Schwartz, Griffin said at the time, owed the state of Arkansas nine months in prison and $1.8 million in restitution. A spokesman for Griffin said last week that, after making some payments — on schedule — Schwartz owed the state about $1.2 million, which must be fully repaid by April 2027. One of the lobbyists whom Schwartz hired, Joshua Nass, worked to try to reduce Schwartz’s sentence in Arkansas. Nass declined to comment. He was later charged with attempting to extort $500,000 from a client and his son. Although the victims are not identified in the case, the circumstances match those of Schwartz. Nass was released from federal custody after posting a $5 million bond. He has not yet responded to the charge. Prosecutors said in a court filing they were negotiating with Nass for a plea deal that could resolve the case without a trial. Schwartz reported to an Arkansas prison on Dec. 29, creating an opportunity for the lawyers representing families who had won judgments against him. At the height of Skyline’s expansion, the company controlled nearly 1 in 10 nursing home beds in the state. But by the time families won their cases, Schwartz had relinquished or sold his Arkansas facilities, leaving no clear assets for lawyers to pursue. Because Schwartz was in state custody again, lawyers could serve him with court papers and ask a judge to compel him to answer questions under oath about his finances — requiring him to disclose bank accounts, companies and other assets and to turn over financial records. Those proceedings are often the first step in tracing money and identifying property that might be used to satisfy a judgment. From there, attorneys could ask courts in other states to recognize and enforce the Arkansas judgments so they could pursue assets located elsewhere. John Landis, an attorney for Reddick Law, which represents the Coulson and Grissom families, said he and another attorney representing yet another client with a judgment against Schwartz, contacted the state prison system to set up depositions of Schwartz. But the window proved too brief. The Arkansas parole board released Schwartz after just three weeks. Before they could ask a single question, the chance to follow the money was gone. The post A Nursing Home Owner Got a Trump Pardon. The Families of His Patients Got Nothing. appeared first on ProPublica .

For years, Utah allowed government officials to do something other states banned: ask a person who reports a sexual assault to take a polygraph test. That will change soon. Earlier this month, state lawmakers passed a bill that prohibits police and other government officials from requesting polygraph tests for alleged sex assault victims. Gov. Spencer Cox signed it into law on Thursday, and it goes into effect in May.  Experts say these tests are known to be especially unreliable with victims of sexual abuse. That’s because victims may have stress and anxiety recounting their assault that the polygraph may interpret as deception. Other states don’t allow them to be used with assault victims for this reason. It took two years and three legislative sessions for Utah state Rep. Angela Romero, the House minority leader, to get the bill across the finish line. When she first sponsored it in 2024, she cited reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica as she told her fellow legislators the damaging effects polygraph tests can have on people who are reporting sexual abuse.  In the case covered by the news outlets, state licensors asked a man to take a polygraph test after he reported that his therapist, Scott Owen, had touched him inappropriately. The test results indicated he was being deceptive, and that led the patient to drop his complaint. Owen was allowed to continue to practice for two more years, until others came forward with similar allegations. Owen is now in prison after admitting he sexually abused patients. Romero said in a recent interview that she was determined to bring the bill back for that former patient. “For me, it was really specifically for that one individual who was not believed,” Romero said, “and then their perpetrator went on to harm other people.” Cox signed the legislation during a small ceremony at his office, telling Romero that she “has been such a champion, and made a difference and saved lives.” The governor also nodded to The Tribune and ProPublica’s reporting driving change. Gov. Spencer Cox, signing the polygraph legislation, praised its Democratic sponsor, saying she “made a difference and saved lives.” Utah Governor’s Office Provo police began investigating Owen in 2023 after The Tribune and ProPublica published a story that detailed a range of sexual assault allegations from the man given the polygraph test, identified in previous reporting under the pseudonym Andrew, and three others.  Former patients who spoke to the news outlets said they sought Owen’s help because he was a therapist who had built a reputation as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They said he touched them inappropriately during those sessions, some of which were paid for with church funds . Half of states have laws that explicitly prohibit law enforcement from conducting a polygraph test with someone reporting a sexual assault. Some go further, barring a broader group of government employees beyond law enforcement from requiring an alleged sexual assault victim to take one. Although Romero’s bill had support from prosecutors and police each session she proposed it, there was pushback from defense attorneys and some fellow legislators who wanted to keep polygraph tests as an option because alleged sex assaults often have no other witnesses. Polygraph test results are not admissible in court because of their unreliability. But Steve Burton, with the Utah Defense Attorney Association, said in a recent legislative hearing that it is still valuable for prosecutors and investigators to consider those results before deciding whether to pursue criminal charges. “This is often one of the only things that a defense attorney can ask for or use in order to try to show that their client may be telling the truth,” he said. Romero pushed back on that idea, saying there are other kinds of interview techniques that authorities can use to help determine whether someone’s account is truthful. “This is not a way,” she said. “Especially when you’re dealing with someone who has been a victim. You could revictimize that person. And it also could discourage that person from going forward and participating in the process of criminally prosecuting their perpetrator.” “The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Gone Through” Reporting from The Tribune and ProPublica showed the damaging effects a polygraph test had on the man who reported Owen to state licensors. Andrew, who is identified by a pseudonym to protect his privacy, said he was sexually abused by therapist Scott Owen. (Objects in this image have been darkened and blurred to protect Andrew’s identity.) Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune Andrew reported Owen to Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing in 2016. As part of the investigation, licensors offered polygraph tests to both Andrew and Owen. Owen declined. Andrew agreed, recalling that an investigator told him passing would bolster what was essentially one person’s word against another’s. But the polygraph results, Andrew said, suggested he was being deceptive. Polygraph tests generally function to record signs of internal stress, which could suggest someone is not telling the truth. “I had so much trauma,” he told The Tribune and ProPublica. “And so, certainly, when they asked me questions about the particular things that happened in therapy, it’s going to elicit a very strong emotional response.” The result affected his mental health, he said, and he told an investigator he no longer wanted to pursue the complaint. In a 2016 public reprimand from licensors, Owen admitted giving Andrew hugs — touching he called inappropriate but “non-sexual.” Andrew had reported that Owen groped him, encouraged him to undress and kissed him during sessions. Officials with DOPL said they believe they responded appropriately to the complaint. But communications between Andrew and an investigator suggest that the agency’s decision not to more harshly discipline Owen rested largely on his denial and on Andrew’s polygraph results. Owen pleaded guilty to felony charges in February 2025, admitting he sexually abused two patients and led them to believe that sexual touching was part of therapy. He pleaded no contest in a third patient’s case. Andrew was among more than half a dozen men — mostly former patients — who spoke during Owen’s sentencing hearing a month later about how he had harmed them.  “The experience with Scott Owen has been the worst thing I’ve ever gone through,” Andrew said. “I don’t think he belongs in society anymore.” A judge sentenced Owen to at least 15 years in prison. He’s currently at the central Utah prison facility. A New State Task Force The state is addressing some of the shortcomings identified by The Tribune and ProPublica in another way as well: creating a task force to look into a rise in sexual misconduct complaints that state licensors say they’ve seen against licensed professionals. The task force will focus on health care, mental health and massage therapy, professions state officials say have historically received the highest percentage of sexual misconduct complaints. The news organizations reported that more than a third of mental health professionals who received discipline from licensors beginning in 2012 were accused of sexual misconduct. In 2023, DOPL spokesperson Melanie Hall said the agency was aware that certain license types “have a tendency towards certain types of violations.” The agency, she said, “takes these factors into account when investigating complaints, and takes appropriate disciplinary action when necessary.” The task force, which was announced earlier this month, will focus on suggesting changes to the law and creating resources to help victims more easily report misconduct to the state.  It also plans to develop a standardized process for sharing reports among agencies that might have knowledge of an accusation — something that is not currently legally required. The Tribune and ProPublica highlighted this gap in their reporting on Owen’s case: Although Andrew and at least two others reported Owen to DOPL, licensors never shared those reports with Provo police.  Margaret Busse is the executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, which houses DOPL. She said in a statement that licensed professionals who engage in sexual misconduct violate not just their clients’ trust, but the public’s confidence in their profession. “These heinous acts inflict profound harm to victims and damage the reputations of entire industries,” she said. “This task force is our unequivocal declaration: Utah will hold licensed professionals accountable to protect our communities and the integrity of state-regulated industries.” The post Utah Bans Polygraph Tests for Those Reporting Sexual Assault appeared first on ProPublica .

This story works best on ProPublica’s website . Before vaccines, death and disability stalked children. Then shots turned once-common infections into something doctors only read about in textbooks. When immunization rates drop, however, plagues from the past can come roaring back, as measles has in American communities where parents decided not to vaccinate their children. Imagine what would happen if even the people who wanted shots couldn’t get them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an antivaccination group, is considering changes that could prompt the handful of companies that make most shots for American children to stop selling them here. Over the last year, he has been transforming a government that long championed the lifesaving benefits of vaccines into one that questions their safety here and around the world. Shortly after Kennedy was nominated, questions swirled over how he might overhaul America’s immunization system. Two Stanford University researchers wondered how many people would suffer if vaccination rates dropped or shots became entirely unavailable for four of the most infamous diseases: polio, measles, rubella and diphtheria.  Outbreaks often start when an American catches one of these illnesses abroad and returns home. So epidemiologists Mathew Kiang and Nathan Lo, who is also an infectious diseases doctor, built a model to simulate how the four contagions could spread from sick travelers based on each state’s vaccination rates. Since a sizable chunk of the population is currently vaccinated, some of the infections wouldn’t get a foothold right away. But over time, as more babies are born and not vaccinated, a larger share of the population would become susceptible.  The professors ran thousands of simulations for each disease, producing a range of possible outcomes. From there, they figured out the average number of deaths and disabilities over a 25-year period. Their model shows that at current vaccination rates, the nation is already teetering on the brink of an explosion in measles cases — one that would be virtually wiped out with just a 5% increase in vaccination. But if current rates drop by half, all four diseases could return.  The researchers’ modeling of the worst-case scenario assumes a quarter century where no one could get the shots. It doesn’t account for the likelihood of parents going abroad to find vaccines or politicians intervening to ensure drugmakers offer them again.  But the results demonstrate in stark terms how vital shots are and what’s at stake if policy changes interfere with Americans’ ability to vaccinate their kids.  ProPublica shared the key findings of that scenario with the Department of Health and Human Services. An agency spokesperson didn’t address the modeling but said “HHS has not limited access or insurance coverage to any FDA-approved vaccines” and continues to routinely recommend the shots for children. When they published their paper in early 2025, Kiang and Lo emphasized the outcomes from less extreme drops in vaccination rates, in part because the peer reviewers suggested those were more realistic. Back then, Kennedy was in his earliest days at HHS.  A year later, though, a scenario where no one can get these vaccines doesn’t feel as far-fetched, Kiang said. “Every week that goes by,” he said, “that seems more plausible.”  Lo said that their goal was to show policy makers, “if we make certain decisions, this is what could happen.”  So ProPublica decided to illustrate what a future without vaccines could look like. If We Lost the Vaccine for Polio Polio, which mainly affects young children, can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis in the limbs or in the muscles needed to breathe. In the 1950s, many people were kept alive in iron lungs, huge metal contraptions that encased the body up to the neck and used pressure to force air in and out of the lungs. Ventilators have since replaced the antiquated equipment, but modern medicine can’t reverse the paralysis. The model assumes 1 out of every 200 unvaccinated people who catch polio would become paralyzed. Imagine if this group of kindergartners became paralyzed by polio. They would be a tiny sliver of the 23,000 people the model predicts could be paralyzed by polio over 25 years if no one is getting the vaccine. That 23,000 is the model’s average. It’s the equivalent of more than a thousand kindergarten classes. (The model results range from 0 to more than 70,000 cases of paralytic polio.) If We Lost the Vaccine for Measles Measles is among the most contagious diseases in history. A child can spread it before they even get a rash, and the virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after they leave a room.  Famous for its blotchy spots covering the body, measles is a respiratory disease that can lead to pneumonia and swelling of the brain. Before the vaccine, just about everyone got measles, and every year 400 to 500 Americans died. The model assumes that 3 out of every 1,000 people infected with measles would die. Over the last 25 years, six people who contracted measles in the U.S. died from the disease. If Americans could no longer get the vaccine, the model predicts measles would spread quickly. The model shows that measles could kill about 290,000 people over 25 years. If We Lost the Vaccine for Rubella Rubella, also known as German measles, is usually mild in kids and adults. But it’s devastating to a developing fetus. If an infection occurs very early in pregnancy, there’s up to a 90% chance that the baby will be born with congenital rubella syndrome. These children frequently have heart defects, deafness or blindness — and sometimes all three. Many have intellectual disabilities, too. About a third of babies with the syndrome die before their first birthday. A U.S. rubella epidemic in the mid-1960s left 20,000 newborns with congenital rubella syndrome. If the vaccine went away, we wouldn’t see babies born with congenital rubella syndrome right away. The unvaccinated children would first need to grow into their childbearing years. The model shows that cases would begin to climb after about 15 years. And within 25 years, 41,000 babies could be born with congenital rubella syndrome. If We Lost the Vaccine for Diphtheria Diphtheria, a major killer of children in the 1900s, was known as the “strangling angel.”  The disease’s name comes from the Greek word for leather because diphtheria’s toxin attacks the respiratory tract. Dead tissue builds up in the throat like a thick piece of hide, sealing off a swollen airway.  For those who escape suffocation, the toxin can damage the nerves and heart. Patients who seem better can drop dead weeks later. An antitoxin made from the blood of horses needs to be given promptly, but it is in short supply. Children elsewhere in the world have died waiting for it. The disease is rare and much less contagious than measles or rubella. But it’s also far more deadly. The model assumes only one infected traveler would arrive every five years and that 1 out of every 10 unvaccinated people who catch diphtheria would die. The researchers found it’s very possible nobody would die of diphtheria in the 25-year period their model covers. But we would be playing a game of high-stakes roulette if we lost the vaccine. There is a chance that the strangling angel could become devastating again. Remember the 23,000 people who could be paralyzed without a polio vaccine? A world without a diphtheria vaccine could be even worse. On average, the model predicts 138,000 deaths from diphtheria. In the worst-case scenario, though, the model shows that more than a million people could die from diphtheria in 25 years without a vaccine. The chance of that is remote, but it’s the gamble we’d all be taking. Methodology The number of paralytic polio cases, measles deaths, cases of congenital rubella syndrome and diphtheria deaths in this story are the average values generated by a model created by Stanford University researchers Mathew Kiang and Nathan Lo, which ran 2,000 simulations for each disease. When we refer to a “range” of possibilities, we mean the values within the upper and lower bounds of a 95% uncertainty interval — meaning across all simulations, 95% of the results fall within those bounds. For the worst-case scenario of deaths from diphtheria, the number used is the high end of this range. For polio, the model generated an average of 23,066 cases of paralytic polio and a range of 0 to 74,934 cases. For measles, the model generated an average of 290,129 deaths and a range of 285,271 to 294,286 deaths. For rubella, the model generated an average of 41,441 cases of congenital rubella syndrome and a range of 34,876 to 48,373 cases. For diphtheria, the model generated an average of 138,284 deaths and a range of 0 to 1,460,394 deaths.   For current vaccination rates, the researchers used the average of the rates from 2004 to 2023 in each state.  The six deaths from measles over the last 25 years figure is from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report .  Last year, the Stanford epidemiologists and other researchers published a peer-reviewed article about this model in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed what could happen with less severe declines in vaccination. The post The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish appeared first on ProPublica .

Ce 30 mars 2026, le Gabon affrontait Trinité-et-Tobago à l’occasion des Fifa Series. Après un match intense, les Panthères se sont imposées 2-3 aux tirs au but. De son côté, le Cap-Vert a battu la Finlande aussi aux tirs au but.

Un procès à ramifications s'est ouvert ce lundi 30 mars en France sous le nom d'Athanor, une loge de francs-maçons devenus commanditaires de barbouzeries. Pendant trois mois et demi, une vingtaine de personnes vont être jugées par la cour d'assises de Paris, pour de multiples faits allant jusqu'à l'assassinat.

La riposte militaire iranienne continue de toucher les pays arabes du Golfe. Une frappe contre une usine de désalinisation d'eau de mer au Koweït, lundi 30 mars, a fait un mort et causé des dégâts matériels, sans toutefois perturber la production d'eau. L'attaque illustre une inquiétude grandissante dans la région autour de la vulnérabilité des infrastructures hydriques, vitales pour ces pays désertiques.

A French court on Monday issued an arrest warrant and a one-year prison sentence against the Chinese captain of a suspected Russian “shadow fleet” tanker over failing to comply with orders to stop his ship. Chen Zhangjie, 39, was sentenced in absentia after the French navy boarded the Boracay tanker in September before releasing the vessel and its crew days later, in what Russian leader Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy”. The court in the western city of Brest also ordered Chen to pay a...

French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of America building in Paris at the weekend, the interior minister said on Monday. The authorities suspect a link to Iran due to similarities to other recent attempted attacks in Europe which a pro-Iran group claimed responsibility for, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. On Saturday morning, Paris police officers spotted two suspects carrying a shopping bag near the Bank of...

After a seven-hour drive to a trading post in northern Philippines, 35-year-old farmer Elmer Ullani took home nothing but an empty petrol tank even after selling 10 tonnes of cabbage. Ullani, who hails from the northern town of Tinoc in Ifugao province, said he only managed to sell his produce – yielded over three harvest rounds – at a paltry rate of 8 to 9 pesos (15 US cents) per kilogram, earning him a total of 90,000 pesos (US$1,482). All of his earnings went towards covering his fuel...

In Israel soll künftig wieder hingerichtet werden, die Knesset hat einen entsprechenden Entwurf angenommen. Betroffen wären allerdings nur Palästinenser. Menschenrechtler sind entsetzt, auch aus Deutschland kommt Kritik.

„Wir genehmigen weder die Nutzung von Militärstützpunkten noch die Nutzung des Luftraums für Aktionen im Zusammenhang mit dem Krieg in Iran“, sagt Spaniens Verteidigungsministerin Margarita Robles.

Der Verkauf des Modehauses in der Fußgängerzone stockt seit Monaten – offenbar weil eine Bank den Grundschuldbrief nicht mehr findet. Und die Belastung auf der Immobilie ist noch größer.

Bald könnte es ein direktes Treffen zwischen Vertretern der USA und Irans in Pakistan geben. Für Islamabad geht es dabei nicht nur um internationalen Imagegewinn, sondern auch um eigene Sicherheitsinteressen, erklärt SWP-Experte Christian Wagner.[ mehr ]

Bundeskanzler Merz hat den syrischen Übergangspräsidenten al-Scharaa empfangen. Es ging um Wiederaufbau und Sicherheit - und um das gemeinsame Interesse an der Rückkehr von geflüchteten Syrerinnen und Syrern.[ mehr ]

Wie lassen sich Unterbrechungen bei Gaslieferungen aus dem Nahen Osten abfedern? Etwa mit langfristigen Lieferverträgen, sagt Wirtschaftsministerin Reiche. Hilfe könnte auch aus Ländern wie Algerien und Aserbaidschan kommen.[ mehr ]

Leader understood to have spoken to 10 trade unions after party claimed working class voters are turning to them Zack Polanski has kicked off a charm offensive designed to convince trade unions to stop funding Labour and throw their weight behind the Green party, as he delivered the first in a series of speeches to union conferences. The Green leader has had “good conversations” with 10 trade unions, including some affiliated to Labour, according to party sources, and is due to address the University and College Union and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, not affiliated with Labour, in the coming months. Continue reading...

Ex-TV host pledged to centre party around equity, with higher wealth taxes, green energy and tuition-free education Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Canada’s embattled New Democratic party (NDP) has elected the former broadcaster and self-proclaimed socialist Avi Lewis as its new leader, as it looks to rebuild following a devastating federal election last year that saw it lose official party status. A record number of members voted in the three-day NDP leadership convention, giving Lewis a first-ballot win that underscored widespread support. Lewis pledged to convert the “tremendous momentum” of the convention into a “NDP comeback”. Continue reading...

Dern will play Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown in first scripted take on the Epstein story, based on Brown’s book Laura Dern is taking on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, in a new limited series executive produced by Adam McKay based on journalist Julie K Brown’s work busting open the story. Dern will play Brown, the Miami Herald investigative reporter on the late, disgraced financier’s tail when no one else was, for the first scripted take on the Epstein case. The screenplay will be based on Brown’s 2021 book Perversion of Injustice: The Jeffrey Epstein story. Sharon Hoffman, a writer on the 2020 limited series Mrs America, will write the project and serve as co-showrunner with Eileen Myers (The Night Agent, Masters of Sex). McKay, the writer-director of Don’t Look Up and executive producer on the HBO juggernaut Succession, among other credits, will serve as executive producer alongside Dern and Brown. Continue reading...