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  • NYU Langone to Ban Trigger Words: Including ‘America,’ ‘Fatherland,’ ‘Gold Star,’ and ‘Unborn Baby’ in Coding and Curriculum to Promote DEI Values

    Langone Medical Center this week after demanding an apology and a “public display of the Hellenic Cross.” One hospital official condemned the letters as “hate-filled, targeted anti-Semitic emails.”
    In February, St. John’s pledged $30 million to “advance the children’s hospital” at Hassenfeld and announced plans to amend its resignation agreement to give it greater say in the hospiti…
    In October, three months after his confirmation to the post of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, nodded appreciatively as his alma mater, St. John’s University, presented him with a Doctor of Humane Letters.
    Housing and Urban Development Secretary in an unannounced visit to Langone, using his perch as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to warn against undermining educational opportunities for young people.
    As part of his congratulations, Mr. Carson told the students they would have to do better than “whining and complaining” to overcome the challenges they might confront in life.
    In February, St. John’s pledged $30 million to “advance the children’s hospital” at Hassenfeld and announced plans to amend its resignation agreement to give it greater say in the hospital’s operations.
    William Lynch, St. John’s president, referred questions about the Central Park East school and about the funding for it, which came from Rev. Edward J. Malloy Jr., the late president of St. John’s, to Father Scanlon. Based on the passage above, In what context did St. John’s University’s president refer questions regarding a Central Park East school and its funding to his colleague Father Scanlon?

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  • Hotel Occupancy in Toronto, Montreal, and Other Canadian Cities Suffers Due to President Trump’s Tight Policies: NY Times Report.

    In the New York Times article titled “The Loss of Canadian Tourists in New York Is Continuing to Grow” published on March 20, 2025, Michael del Piero highlights the decreasing number of Canadian visitors to New York City and their correlation with the Trump administration’s policies. According to NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism organization, Canada used to account for nearly 25% of all foreign visitors to the city, but last year, the number dropped to 18%. This decline in Canadian tourism is expensive for New York’s economy, as they spend $4 billion annually. While there are many contributing factors, including the strength of the dollar, Canadian tourism experts say that increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric and administration policies have deterred Canadians from visiting New York. The article suggests that both New York and Canada can lose due to this crisis, as Canada’s business and financial ties with the US are strong, and the US assigns many jobs to Canadians due to its high cost of labor. The article points to a forthcoming initial public offering in Canada of a marijuana stock as a unique opportunity for American investors, but it may hurt New York tourism if it hasn’t normalized its relationship with the Trump administration and taken more proactive steps to curb the ongoing decline in Canadian visits.

    The original article

  • Title: “Israel’s Deadly Response to Gaza Protests Sparks Unrest, as Hamas Vows Retaliation” (New York Times, March 19, 2025)

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    Given the text: For example, public schools provide school lunches for free, while private schools often require that parents purchase them, or students bring their own, making it unaffordable for lower income families. Public schools offer free after-school programs, sports teams, and clubs, which private schools often charge fees for. Public schools provide teen health clinics and low cost medical care for disadvantaged students, while private schools often leave these services up to the families’ abilities to pay. Public schools are lastly often much larger in size, with dozens of classrooms and thousands of students. These larger schools can provide better learning environments including athletic facilities and science labs that are often too expensive for private schools to provide.
    Summarize the article using WordPress tags, including but not limited to private schools, public schools, free school lunches, free after-school programs, free sports teams and clubs, teen health clinics, low cost medical care, disadvantaged students, basic services, athletic facilities, and science labs.

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  • Uncovering the Forgotten Railroad: Rekindling a Holocaust Rescue Story of the Kindertransport Evacuation in Britain

    Title: Kindertransport: The Rescue That Changed Lives After the Holocaust | The New York Times

    Desc: On the eve of Passover in 1939, a program to bring Jewish refugee children to safety in England began. Now, almost 80 years later, they talk about their experiences.

    Tag: history, holocaust, immigration, refugee, rescues, children, interviews, kindertransport

    In 1938, the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) took control of the government, and Hitler’s “Final Solution” to the Jewish question began. The time was ripe for a humanitarian project in the United Kingdom, the “Kindertransport.” The other protagonists were more than 9,000 German and Austrian Jewish children, most of whom were rescued just weeks before the commencement of World War II.

    Now, in a new story for The New York Times, five of these children recount their journeys in their own words, sharing experiences that changed the course of their lives.

    Desc: The Kindertransport was a national effort in the UK to rescue Jewish children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia just before the start of WWII. The cellist and soprano recount their personal stories of how they ended up in English boarding schools.

    Tag: music, cellist, soprano, kindertransport, holocaust, english, boarding schools, refugees

    Closely bound with the Kindertransport initiative is the story of Helen Epstein, the national director of its UK-based research and archive wing for more than three decades. In this article for the Jewish Independent, Epstein shares stories found in the more than 200 testimonies collected over the years. The article also provides information on Epstein, her scientific achievements, and the work of the Kindertransport-UK Research Campaign archive.

    Desc: The Kindertransport programme saved 10,000 Jewish children from being imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis. Helen Epstein recalls life in England, working as one of the children’s liaison officers, and observing the differences between their primary and secondary socialization.

    Tag: dna, education, jewish, refugees, interviews, humans, kindertransport, helen epstein

    Sometimes, research leads to unimaginable discoveries, and that is precisely what happened with Frank Meisler, one of the Kindertransport children from 1938. Meisler shared his story after meeting a stranger who looked so much like him that they identified an intimate link: they were half-brothers born from an affair between their Czech Jewish father and a woman who was the mistress of a Nazi commander. NPR Snap Judgment’s website has this captivating story characterized by both brutality and kindness.

    Desc: One hundred of these children paid the ultimate price either in the Holocaust or in the UK. The other roughly 9,000 had their lives forever changed. Created for NPR’s Snap Judgment, this story follows Frank Meisler, a Kindertransport child, who discovers a most intriguing change to his life by learning he is half-brothers with a stranger who looks just like him.

    Tag: affair, nazi, holocaust, brotherson, identity, nature vs. nurture, kindness, brutality, uk, czechoslovakia, jewish, interviews, snap judgment

    The horrors of the Holocaust could never deter those who, despite differing insights and objectives, successfully contributed to saving human life at that dark time. Now, almost 90 years later, more stories are being shared that demonstrates the power of collective will, initiative from individuals, and randomness of human events.

    The original article

  • A Record-Breaking Spike in Military Spending by European Nations in 2025: Revealing Statistical Trends and Analysis

    A recent NATO report has revealed that European allies and partners spent 2.38 percent of their GDP on defence in 2024, which is just 5 percent away from the target set by the alliance. This marks a significant increase from the 2.08 percent spent in 2023 and the 1.44 percent spent ten years ago. However, only six European allies hit the 2% target, including Poland, Estonia, Greece, the United Kingdom, Latvia, and the Czech Republic. France has also pledged to reach 2% by 2030 and increase defence spending by 50 billion Euros. Canada and Germany were among the countries that saw a decrease in their defence spending, while Denmark and the Netherlands exceeded the target but fell below it the year before. The report also estimates that if spending trends continue, four more allies would reach the 2% target by 2028. The United States has urged European countries to do more to support the alliance’s collective defence efforts since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The original article

  • Title: “Trump Speaks with Putin on Ukraine Conflict as Cease-Fire Breaks Down”

    [russia-ukraine-war, trump-russia-talks, diplomatic-effort, international-relations]

    Trump and Putin Discuss Path to Dewescalation in Ukraine: The exchange between the leaders aimed to find diplomatic solutions to resolve the ongoing conflict between Russia on one side and Ukraine as well as Russia-backed separatists on the other side. However, the conversations primarily focused on lifting sanctions against Moscow along with a possible meeting between the Russian President and the Ukrainian President. The discussion also centered around the sensitive issue of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the Russian role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of over 13,000 people so far. Nonetheless, the dialogue took place at a time when the war is heating up, with the pro-Russian separatists intensifying their attacks in the east of Ukraine, whereas the West has expressed concerns about a possible large-scale invasion by Moscow. Therefore, the recent talks between Trump and Putin represented a diplomatic effort to prevent an escalation in the conflict and to create opportunities for a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis.

    The original article

  • Title: Released JFK Assassination Documents Shock National Security Officials

    news, politics, jfk, national security, classified documents, assassination, government secrecy, fitzgerald, archive, house committee.

    A set of classified documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which have been sealed by federal law for decades, will finally be opened and released on Friday, dozens of years after government secrecy rules were first invoked amidst speculation about the nature of the documents’ contents, The New York Times reported on March 18, 2025. The documents, which reportedly originate with the Assassination Records Review Board, a federal agency, and which initially numbered well into the thousands, were the subject of legal battles and appeals stemming from a 1992 law that mandated their release. That law was triggered by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1992. Over the course of thirty years, scholars and hobbyists have worked to uncover the secrets surrounding the assassination in Dallas in 1963, during which time the fourth president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was killed by an apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. For much of the first three decades following the incident, however, the federal government maintained a jaw-dropping degree of secrecy with respect to the documents surrounding the murder, going so far as to invoke censorship protocols during the investigation into Kennedy’s death that were well in excess of those invoked during World War II. This lack of transparency, many historians and observers believe, proceeded in perfect lockstep with the type of executive overreach that has been a hallmark of the national security state, in which the interests of government officials are placed above the wellbeing and even constitutional rights of the American people. In 2025, however, some experts are inclined to look forward to the prospect of greater transparency – and to a more robust democratic process – during which the American people are able to more fully inform themselves about their political system. In particular, there will likely be some scrutiny paid to the documents’ origins, as well as to the FBI’s alleged role in certain of the “secrecy implementations” that have been carried out over the past several decades. “It’s just kind of suspicious,” remarked Assemblyman Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), chairman of the New York State Assembly committee on government operations, to The New York Times. “I mean, seriously. When people at very high levels can’t have access to documents, it just raises questions. And that’s what I’m hoping we’ll be able to do, is to gotten to the bottom of exactly why.” In light of this scrutiny, however, some federal officials may be inclined to hedge their bets, releasing information sparingly and piecemeal, so as to prevent any kind of overarching personality, institution, or government agency from being implicated in any improper activity. “We’re just going through and checking things out as we go,” said committee member Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican hailing from Indiana. “So we’ve decided to release this set of documents in particular, but without exposing any sort of overarching narrative out of our investigations.” For their part, other committee members have stated their intention to move quickly and deliberately, examining the documents in question with a sense of solemnity and reverence, mindful that the assassination of JFK represented a watershed moment, not only in U.S. history, but also the history of national security and classified documents. “It’s going to take some time, and it’s going to take some patience,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles), a committee member stated. “But we want to make sure we get this right.” For those hoping to read the documents, however, the prospect of patience may be a source of great frustration. Over the course of thirty years, scholars and hobbyists have worked to uncover the secrets surrounding the assassination in Dallas in 1963, during which time the fourth president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was killed by an apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. For much of the first three decades following the incident, however, the federal government maintained a jaw-dropping degree of secrecy with respect to the documents surrounding the murder, going so far as to invoke censorship protocols during the investigation into Kennedy’s death that were well in excess of those invoked during World War II. This lack of transparency, many historians and observers believe, proceeded in perfect lockstep with the type of executive overreach that has been a hallmark of the national security state, in which the interests of government officials are placed above the wellbeing and even constitutional rights of the American people. In 2025, however, some experts are inclined to look forward to the prospect of greater transparency – and to a more robust democratic process – during which the American people are able to more fully inform themselves about their political system. In particular, there will likely be some scrutiny paid to the documents’ origins, as well as to the FBI’s alleged role in certain of the “secrecy implementations” that have been carried out over the past several decades. “It’s just kind of suspicious,” remarked Assemblyman Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), chairman of the New York State Assembly committee on government operations, to The New York Times. “I mean, seriously. When people at very high levels can’t have access to documents, it just raises questions. And that’s what I’m hoping we’ll be able to do, is to gotten to the bottom of exactly why.” In light of this scrutiny, however, some federal officials may be inclined to hedge their bets, releasing information sparingly and piecemeal, so as to prevent any kind of overarching personality, institution, or government agency from being implicated in any improper activity. “We’re just going through and checking things out as we go,” said committee member Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican hailing from Indiana. “So we’ve decided to release this set of documents in particular, but without exposing any sort of overarching narrative out of our investigations.” For their part, other committee members have stated their intention to move quickly and deliberately, examining the documents in question with a sense of solemnity and reverence, mindful that the assassination of JFK represented a watershed moment, not only in U.S. history, but also the history of national security and classified documents. “It’s going to take some time, and it’s going to take some patience,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles), a committee member stated. “But we want to make sure we get this right.” For those hoping to read the documents, however, the prospect of patience may be a source of great frustration. They have given official notice of their intention to highlight sections of the pending document release on Friday, which relate to Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder of a Dallas police officer several hours after the JFK assassination, as well as elements surrounding JFK’s travel in the days leading up to the assassination. It is unclear whether any new facts or revelations will emerge from the document release – and, if so, whether those findings will be related to Oswald, the Dallas police, JFK, or any other potentially salacious or interesting aspects of the JFK assassination. As Rep. Lieu suggested, therefore, it may prove better for pundits and lay-persons alike to be patient and cautious – rather than over-reaching, speculating, or generating baseless conspiracy theories – as they sift through the evidence and try to make sense of this profound and complicated moment in history.

    The original article

  • Reddit Unleashes a New Effort to Assist Federal Workers Involuntarily Bound by Shutdown

    Technology: Struggling VA Employees Seek Help on Reddit
    Reddit’s r/VA Benefits forum gives federal workers assistance in navigating the Veterans Administration, where they face benefits shortfalls during their own government shutdown.

    Reddit, the popular internet forum, is hosting a de facto helpline for anxious federal workers relying on a troubled government agency for benefits, according to a New York Times report.
    Last month, federal workers started resorting to the platform to find assistance navigating the Veterans Administration, where they confront potential delayed benefits during the ongoing government shutdown.
    The forum, Reddit’s r/VA Benefits, was created more than five years ago by federal VA employee Michael Taylor to address veterans’ issues, but has since become a nexus for furloughed employees in search of answers, according to The Times.
    Taylor, a computer engineer at the VA’s National Center for Technology Innovation in Salt Lake City, said that the forum gained hundreds of new members after the shutdown started, while questions about delayed benefits shot up from just about a handful per day to more than 200-300 inquiries a day.
    Taylor’s platform is now a lifeline for those government workers who are increasingly becoming reliant on VA benefits, which though less than what they receive in other federal agencies are the sole source of income for furloughed workers without pay.
    Although some VA workers are finding it tough to pay bills on where their next paycheck will come from, Reddit’s forum has rallied together its members to help out furloughed employees with their finances through small donations.
    The platform has already raised around $4,500 in donations, out of which $3,000 were taken up by an automated system running a Reddit donation page set up to help workers, The Times reported.
    Making use of technology, members of Reddit’s r/VA Benefits forum leverage on Reddit’s screening feature to verify if federal workers are genuine, according to the report. They screen comments posted by people who are active on social media (say Facebook) and have posted proof-related content about being a federal worker, The Times said.
    The VA’s failure to address the needs of furloughed employees has created an atmosphere where workers see no other option but to seek solace in platforms like Reddit, according to Taylor.
    The number of people seeking instant help with their VA benefits are growing by the day at the forum. Taylor remarked in an interview with the Times that he has received emails from people saying they intended to retire, and then take up unpaid work during their retirement period, all to keep afloat during the government shutdown, The Times said.
    Apart from raising funds and becoming a guiding star for some, the forum has also helped the VA take feedback from people who have fallen through the cracks and unintentionally lost access to VA medical care, benefits, and employment, according to the report.
    One problem, reported in the NY Times, is with deferred direct loan payments. Direct loans—which make up $46 billion of all VA loans according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—have started drawing interest on unpaid balances, which can lead to delayed payments and ultimately home foreclosures. According to the article, veterans are now confronted with the loss of access to loan benefits in addition to the delay experienced in the processing of their unemployment claims.
    The shortfall in benefits also adds another layer of stress for federal workers who have already fallen behind on rent, utility bills, and other household expenses. Overall, 78% of poll respondents to a recent bank survey showed some financial impact, as reported by the Times.
    Reddit’s r/VA Benefits forum members are also reporting that they are having to pay for their healthcare costs out of pocket, some out-of-pocket expenditures exceeding $3,000, according to The Times.
    “Everybody’s kinda in it together,” said Rachel Teitt in an appearance on CBS News Sunday Morning, who’s a nonprofit program administrator at The District of Columbia Rape Crisis Center that’s partially funded by the federal government. “Everyone is stressed. Everyone is worried.” Teitt reported that at least 115 people are currently furloughed right now, a number that has not been seen since 2011.

    The original article

  • Oil Magnates Pressure Trump on Lifting Steel Tariffs in Climate Fight

    Regarding the analyzed New York Times article on the potential impact of Trump’s tariffs on oil executives, the following tags are applicable:

    – Trump Administration’s Policies (OT3)

    – Oil Industry (OT6)

    – Environmental concerns (OT7)

    – US Economy (OT2)

    The article discusses a visit of a group of North American oil executives to meet with Trump and members of his Cabinet to ask for help with the global oversupply crisis that has led to massive declines in oil prices. This capital-intensive and heavily-debted industry is now straining under pressure from the slump in oil prices that has erupted since a November peak of $60 a barrel. The aim of this meeting was to urge Trump’s administration to lift tariffs and quotas on imports of oil field equipment, a request which echoes the Easter Sunday message at churches across the United States. Although the oil executives say they support free trade as long as it is fair, the call for tariff relief may appear to contradict the president’s advocacy of a “buy American” agenda. However, the article highlights a paradox in that repeal of tariffs would reverse a hand protectionist imposed by Mr. Trump, who has claimed credit for restored demand for American steel, which has surged since he took office. On the environmental front, the article hints at melding the concerns on this matter, emphasizing that the plunge in oil prices may undermine efforts to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions by capital-strapped and cash-poor governments. Overall, the New York Times article outlines the potential tangible and intangible effects of a policy shift in regard to the imposed tariffs and the Trump administration’s perceived position on free trade and protectionism.

    The original article

  • GOP Targets ActBlue as Democrats Seek to Flip Senate Seats

    In this article, the New York Times reports on the strategies and tactics used by Republican Party leaders to counteract the growing influence of left-leaning political donation platform, ActBlue. The piece includes commentary from several Republican strategists, experts, and candidates on the negative effects of ActBlue’s fundraising and voter targeting capabilities, as well as examples of specific incidents where ActBlue’s donations aided in electoral upsets. Moreover, the article provides insights on how Republicans are responding to ActBlue, with some launching parallel donor programs and others focusing on messaging and local grassroots mobilization. Overall, this article serves as a timely and informative analysis of the role of donation platforms in contemporary political campaigns, highlighting the implications of ActBlue’s success and the potential countermeasures taken by Republicans.

    The original article