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Mainstream Media Mislead on a Decline in the U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate
By Michael J. New
February 8, 2025
This week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released updated data on the U.S. maternal mortality rate. Maternal mortality has been a salient topic in recent years, since reports from the CDC and some state health agencies have found short-term increases. Unsurprisingly, many pundits have been quick to blame pro-life laws. However, the new CDC data indicate that between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. maternal mortality rate fell, from 22.3 per 100,000 live births to 18.6 — a decline of nearly 17 percent. This is the lowest figure since 2018. Good news!
However, much of the media coverage of this new CDC maternal mortality rate data has focused on racial disparities rather than the overall decline. Indeed, the headlines from Yahoo!, the Associated Press, PBS, and CBS News all mentioned either racial disparities or an increase in the maternal mortality rate among African American women. None of the headlines from these news outlets even mentioned the overall maternal mortality rate decline.
Some context is important. The new CDC data did show a slight increase in the maternal mortality rate among African American women in 2023. However, the CDC’s own report indicated that this increase was not statistically significant. Granted, it is newsworthy that the maternal morality rate fell for other racial and ethnic groups and not African American women. Furthermore, the relatively high incidence of maternal mortality among African Americans is certainly an important public health problem that warrants attention from scholars, journalists, and policymakers.
However, the fact that the U.S. maternal mortality rate fell by nearly 17 percent in 2023 is extremely newsworthy. This was the first full year after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. By the end of 2023, 15 states had either effectively banned abortion or had laws in place protecting preborn children after six weeks’ gestation. Countless mainstream media pundits predicted that strong pro-life laws would hurt public health. However, CDC data show a decline in maternal mortality since 2022 and a decline in infant mortality since 2023. Overall, it is sad, but unsurprising, that many media outlets have chosen to downplay the positive public health trends that have occurred post-Dobbs.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mainstream-media-mislead-on-a-decline-in-the-u-s-maternal-mortality-rate/
Hungary Moves to Expose USAID Funding
tasnimnews.com
February, 08, 2025
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared that he will implement measures ensuring the transparency of aid from the United States to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media outlets critical of his government.
Speaking on state radio on Friday, Orban emphasized the need to “eliminate these foreign networks” that meddle in the country’s domestic affairs, referencing US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, RT reported.
An ally of US President Donald Trump, Orban highlighted the Trump administration’s plan to integrate USAID into the State Department, aligning it with the “America First” policy.
“In America, we would call them agents, as they do not serve their own country but accept money from another power… We don’t call them agents… but these are people and organizations paid from abroad whose job is to overthrow the Hungarian government,” the prime minister said.
Orban, who has been in power since 2010 and faces the voters in early 2026, asserted that recipients of foreign funds must face “legal consequences” and be “squeezed out” as they pose a threat to Hungarian sovereignty.
In late 2023, his government established the Sovereignty Protection Office to monitor and address the risk of political interference. Foreign financing for parties or groups running for office are banned in the country, with penalties of up to three years in prison.
The European Commission launched an infringement procedure over the law in February 2024, citing its potential to undermine the bloc’s democratic values and fundamental rights.
Orban has a long history of taking measures against foreign-funded organizations, particularly those linked to Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. He has repeatedly accused Soros of meddling in Hungary’s domestic affairs, undermining traditional family values, and promoting a globalist agenda.
In 2018, Hungary implemented a “Stop Soros” law aimed at NGOs helping asylum seekers. That year, the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations announced it would move from Budapest to Berlin, citing a repressive environment under Viktor Orban. Hungary also forced the closure of Central European University (CEU), which relocated to Vienna due to regulatory challenges.
The European Union has withheld funding from Orban’s government, accusing it of breaching democratic standards.
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2025/02/08/3253820/hungary-moves-to-expose-usaid-funding
White House Report Card: Even Obama supporters like what Trump’s doing
Story by Paul Bedard
Washington Examiner
February, 08, 2025
This week’s White House Report Card finds that President Donald Trump continues to be on quite a roll in his third week. And the proof is that the storied “Obama coalition” of modern voters likes what it is seeing.
Report card grader and Democratic pollster John Zogby found that younger voters and parents that made up a lot of the Obama coalition support the Republican.
“Our new John Zogby Strategies poll this week shows the president making even more gains among groups that represent the Obama coalition,” he said. That group includes Hispanics and black voters.
FULL LIST OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT
His son and pollster Jeremy Zogby said in releasing their new poll, “The president scores high among parents raising children — a voting bloc that largely corresponds with millennials who have now entered their 30s and 40s — the same group who helped carry President Obama’s victory in 2008. That amounts to a generational flip since the president’s first term when those older than 65 were a major source of Trump’s support."
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-report-card-even-obama-supporters-like-what-trump-s-doing/ar-AA1yEQzh
Venezuelan gang members taken to Guantanamo
8 February 2025
By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square
The first flight of the most violent illegal border crossers arrived at the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It included 10 high-threat illegal foreign nationals who are confirmed members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.
They are being housed in vacant detention facilities and not near war on terror detainees being held there.
Late last month, as part of President Donald Trump’s border security directives, he ordered the secretaries of the departments of Homeland Security and Defense “to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs.”
His executive order was issued “in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”
TdA members are known for committing extreme acts of violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking. Its members are linked to more than 100 law enforcement investigations nationwide. Confirmed members arrests have been reported in at least 22 states, The Center Square first reported.
On his first day in office, Trump designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization, declared an invasion and national emergency at the southern border, and directed the U.S. military to participate in border security efforts.
Most criminal aliens being deported are being transported directly to their countries of origin by the DOD on military aircraft, or "gray tails." Using gray tails for deportation efforts is new, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
In some cases, where it may take longer to process the removal of high-threat criminal aliens, Guantanamo is being used to house them before the DOD returns them to their country of origin, which in this case is Venezuela.
Hegseth previously served at Guantanamo from 2004 to 2005.
"It's folks who may be in transit to their home country or a safe, third harbor country, and it's taking a little time to move with that processing and with the paperwork," Hegseth said. "Better they be held at a safe location like Guantanamo Bay."
Using Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is a "plan in movement,” part of a revised Unified Command Plan. It involves United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) to “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities,” according to Trump’s order.
Trump tasked USNORTHCOM with continuously assessing all available options to repel mass unlawful entry “and impingement on our national sovereignty and security by foreign nations and transnational criminal organizations.”
"We're ramping up for the possibility to expand mass deportations because President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country," Hegseth said. "And the DOD is not only willing to [but] is proud to partner with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission."
In addition to removing violent TdA members from the US, the Trump administration already negotiated with Venezuela to take back its citizens unlawfully in the US and release Americans being held in its prisons, The Center Square reported.
On Trump’s first day in office, he also rescinded Biden administration orders, including a parole program and temporary protective status for Venezuelans, which he and members of Congress argue were illegal. The Biden administration granted TPS to roughly 600,000 Venezuelans and released 117,320 Venezuelans through parole, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from December, The Center Square reported.
Under the Biden administration of the more than 14 million illegal border crossers reported, more than 1 million were from Venezuela, The Center Square first reported.
https://highlandcountypress.com/news/venezuelan-gang-members-taken-guantanamo#gsc.tab=0
Lebanon’s prime minister forms new government after unusual US intervention
Story by Reuters
10:52 AM EST
Sat February 8, 2025
Lebanon formed a new government on Saturday, following unusually direct U.S. intervention in the process and in a step intended to bring the country closer to accessing reconstruction funds following a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Speaking to reporters at the presidential palace, new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the 24-member cabinet would prioritize financial reforms, reconstruction and the implementation of a United Nations resolution seen as a cornerstone to stability on the Lebanese border with Israel.
The announcement came after more than three weeks of talks with rival political parties in Lebanon - where government posts are parceled out according to sect - and days of deadlock over the Shi’ite Muslim ministers, usually named by Iran-backed Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally Amal.
But Washington has pushed back against Hezbollah’s sway in any new government.
U.S. deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus said on Friday that the U.S. considered Hezbollah’s involvement in the new cabinet a “red line” and thanked Israel for dealing devastating blows to the group, in a controversial statement that sparked protests in Lebanon.
But ultimately, Hezbollah’s ally Amal - which is headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri - was allowed to choose four of the new cabinet’s members, including the finance minister Yassin Jaber, and give its nod of approval to a fifth.
The cabinet is now charged with drafting a policy statement - a broad outline of the upcoming government’s approach and priorities - and will then need a vote of confidence from Lebanon’s parliament to be fully empowered.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, who enjoyed U.S. backing as army commander, was elected as president on January 9 and nominated Salam to form a new government days later. Salam had been serving as the head of the International Court of Justice.
Salam’s nomination was the latest signal of a dramatic shift in the power balance in Lebanon, following the heavy blows Israel dealt to Hezbollah, the ousting in December of Hezbollah’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad and Aoun’s election last month.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/08/middleeast/lebanon-prime-minister-new-government-intl/index.html