OUR PICKSDEATH PENALTY Trump’s Death Penalty Push Faces Resistance in Some Red States By: Amanda Hernández

Trump Administration Launches New “Self-Deportation” App  (Reuters / VOA News)
The Trump administration rolled out a new app Monday that will allow immigrants who are in the United States illegally to “self deport” rather than face possible arrest and detention, building on President Donald Trump’s deportation push.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP Home, will offer an option for someone to signal their “intent to depart,” the agency said.

Five Years After the Pandemic, the World Is Poorly Prepared for Another One  (Anthony Staines, The Conversation)
In Europe ten people died from measles in 2024, and the US has had several major outbreaks. Bird flu has affected dairy herds in 17 US states from North Carolina to California and has just been reported in cats. So far, it is reluctant to spread among people, although people can both get it and give it to animals.
Between 500 and 1,000 people globally are now dying every week from COVID. This winter, healthcare in much of the developed world has been hit by a combination of flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID, leading to rising hospital admissions and deaths. We don’t have real control of any of these diseases.
In the last 60 years there have been four pandemics – a million dead from flu in 1968-69; 774 people dead from Sars-1 in 2002; 7 million dead from COVID since 2021; 280 dead from mpox since 2022.
I’m not sure we are more ready for the next pandemic.

Activist’s Arrest Raises Questions on U.S. Protections for Foreign Students, Green Card Holders  AP / VOA News)
The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests of the war in Gaza has sparked questions about whether foreign students and green card holders are protected against being deported from the U.S.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Homeland Security officials and President Donald Trump have indicated that the arrest was directly tied to his role in the protests last spring at Columbia University in New York City.
Khalil is being held at an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, while he awaits immigration court proceedings that could eventually lead to his deportation. His arrest has drawn criticism that he’s being unfairly and unlawfully targeted for his activism while the federal government has essentially described him as a terrorist sympathizer.

Nickels And Dimes: Trump’s Defense Cuts Are Unrealistic  (Michael O’Hanlon, National Interest)
The Trump administration’s hawkish attitudes towards foreign powers, adversarial and allied, conflict with the desire to make grand budget cuts in the Department of Defense.

Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories  (Teddy Rosenbluth, New York Times)
In a recent interview, the health secretary also suggested that the measles vaccine had harmed children in West Texas, center of an outbreak.

History Isn’t Entirely Repeating Itself in Covid’s Aftermath  (Gina Kolata, New York Times)
Five years after the novel coronavirus emerged, historians see echoes of other great illnesses, and legacies that are unlike any of them.

Can a Green-Card Holder Be Deported? What to Know as Student Is Arrested.  (Niha Masih and Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post)
The high-profile arrest of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil has raised questions about deportation risks faced by permanent residents.

The Real Purpose of Trump’s Lies  (Eduardo Porter, Washington Post)
Trump’s style of lying has the power to shape group identities in an increasingly polarized world.

How Trump Is Reshaping Reality by Hiding Data  (Amanda Shendruk and Catherine Rampell, Washington Post)
Curating reality is an old political game, but Trump’s sweeping statistical purges are part of a broader attempt to reinvent “truth.”