For Trump, 3 court losses in 90 minutes
By Devan Cole, CNN

Updated: 4:16 PM EST, Tue February 25, 2025
Source: CNN

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Three different federal judges delivered legal setbacks and slap downs to President Donald Trump in the span of an hour and a half on Tuesday in a series of cases challenging controversial moves taken during the early days of his second term.

The rulings from judges in Washington, DC, and Washington state are the latest to pump the brakes on Trump’s agenda, underscoring the critical role courts have taken on for foes of Trump looking to frustrate his actions.

In DC, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a preliminary injunction that indefinitely blocks the administration from freezing federal grants and loans. The ruling expands an earlier block the appointee of former President Joe Biden issued last month shortly after the White House ordered the funding freeze.

Trump’s spending freeze, she wrote, was “irrational, imprudent, and precipitated a nationwide crisis.” She said the nonprofits that brought the challenge were likely to succeed on their claims that the freeze was unlawful.

The issue of withholding federal funds has become a major flashpoint during the opening weeks of Trump’s second term, with other pending cases challenging the White House’s decision to suspend all foreign assistance.

Shortly before AliKhan issued her ruling, a separate jurist in the DC federal courthouse – Judge Amir Ali – ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid-related money owed to government contractors and nonprofit groups by Wednesday night, amid the legal fight over the freezing of USAID and State Department funds.

That order amounted to a legal reprimand after the plaintiffs in the cases repeatedly accused the administration of not complying with Ali’s earlier temporary restraining order that revived the funding contracts and grants that existed at the end of the Biden administration.

Ali – also a Biden appointee – rebuffed an earlier call by the challengers for the administration to be held in contempt for its alleged non-compliance. But he issued a new order requiring, in more forceful terms, that the government pay money owed to contractors and non-profits for work that had already been completed by the February 13 order.

Meanwhile, across the country in Washington state, a federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday that halts Trump’s executive order suspending refugee admissions and funding.

Judge Jamal Whitehead, who was also appointed by Biden, said that Trump’s “actions amount to an effective nullification of congressional will in establishing the nation’s refugee admissions program.”

“While the president has substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions, that authority is not limitless,” the judge said.

Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day back in office, also directed a review of the refugee program and stated that resettlement should only resume if deemed to be in the “national interest” – a move critics argue is a de facto refugee ban.

The fucker goes around naming things like a dog pissing on a tree.

‘Trump Gaza is finally here!’: US president promotes Gaza plan in AI video

By Mick Krever, CNN
Updated: 6:46 AM EST, Wed February 26, 2025
Source: CNN

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US President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account late on Tuesday, which appears to have been created with generative AI, promoting the transformation of Gaza into a Gulf state-like resort featuring a golden statue of himself, a hummus-eating Elon Musk, and shirtless American and Israeli leaders lounging on a beach.

“No more tunnels, no more fear,” a voice sings over a dance beat. “Trump Gaza is finally here!”

The American president has proposed expelling 2.1 million Palestinians from Gaza and transforming the enclave into a “Riviera” that would be owned by the United States.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has called that proposal a “serious violation of international law.” The PA foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen, said earlier this month: “We have tried displacement before, and it will not happen again,” referring to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.

The video opens on barefoot Palestinian children walking through Gazan rubble. “What’s next?” a title card asks. They walk towards a skyline of skyscrapers lining Gaza’s coast.

“Donald’s coming to set you free,” a voice sings. “Trump Gaza shining bright. Golden future, a brand-new light. Feast and dance. The deed is done.”

The video, incongruously, features bearded and bikini-clad belly dancers, a child holding a golden ballon in the shape of Trump’s head, and Elon Musk dancing on a beach under a shower of US dollars.

It is unclear whether Trump intends to carry through on his expulsion plan. After receiving forceful pushback from Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, Trump told Fox News on Friday: “The way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it.”

As the video ends – “Trump Gaza, number one!” – the camera pushes in on Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sipping drinks on a beach.

CNN is asking the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for comment on the video – and asking the White House for clarification.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the timing of Trump’s post.

square wrote:

Baywolfe wrote:

Measles case count hits 124 in ongoing West Texas outbreak

Expect a rapid crackdown on reporting of health information.  If the data makes Orange Jesus and his toadies look bad, they must declare war on the data.

And it gets, unsurprisingly, worse.  I hear RFK Jr. has some supplements that would have helped, something.

Child in West Texas is first US measles death in a decade

By Neha Mukherjee, CNN
Updated: 3:33 PM EST, Wed February 26, 2025
Source: CNN

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The first measles death in the growing outbreak in West Texas was a school-aged child.

The child was unvaccinated and had been hospitalized in Lubbock, Texas, said Lauren Adams, Lubbock city spokesperson.

This is the first US measles death since 2015, when a woman in Washington state died.

The number of confirmed measles cases reported in an outbreak in West Texas is now at 124, the Texas Department of Health Services said in an update Tuesday, an increase of 34 since late last week. Most of the cases are in children ages 5 to 17.

At President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he deferred a question about the measles outbreak in Texas to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, who said, “We are following the measles epidemic every day.”

Kennedy said during the cabinet meeting that there had been two measles deaths but Texas officials confirmed Wednesday afternoon there has been only one death. New Mexico officials said no measles deaths have been reported in the state.

Eighteen people have been hospitalized so far in the outbreak. Kennedy said that hospitalizations were “mainly for quarantine” but local health officials told CNN most patients were admitted for respiratory issues.

“They’ve been needing supplemental oxygen and respiratory support to help them get over the viral pneumonia part that we see with measles,” Dr. Lara Johnson, the chief medical officer of Covenant Health Lubbock Service Area, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta last week.

CNN has reached out to HHS about Kennedy’s comments at the cabinet meeting.

The bulk of the cases, 80, remain in Gaines County, where the outbreak began, but there has also been spread to eight additional counties. Most of the cases are in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Five cases were reported in people who said they have been vaccinated.

Measles is an airborne illness that can cause rash, fever, red eyes and cough. Severe cases can result in blindness, pneumonia or encephalitis, swelling of the brain. In some cases, the illness can be fatal.

While details on the specific death in Lubbock are still unknown, experts have long warned that measles complications that can result in death in children.

Up to 3 out of 1,000 children with measles will die from respiratory or neurological complications, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Specifically, 1 in 20 children with measles will develop pneumonia, the most common cause of death from the disease, according to Dr. Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist with UTHealth Houston who was not directly involved with the Lubbock patient.

“These outbreaks last between two to six months. That’s a long time. That’s a lot of kids infected … death is rare, but tragic when it happens, but there are a lot of other sequelae, encephalitis, for example, and deafness. There’s a rare neurological disease that can happen. So, as you have more people infected, these sequelae become more common.”

The best way to stay protected against measles is to get vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to experts.

The Lubbock department of health has opened free vaccination clinics which have given about 70 vaccinations since the start of the outbreak, according to city officials.

Coverage of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is particularly low in Gaines County, where nearly 1 in 5 incoming kindergartners in the 2023-24 school year did not get the vaccine. Other affected Texas counties also fall below a goal of 95%, set by HHS, that’s necessary to help prevent outbreaks of the highly contagious disease.

Given how contagious measles is, health officials warn that cases may continue to rise in West Texas.

“I very rarely say I’m 100% sure of something, but I am 100% sure we will see an increase in cases … Texas as a state is under vaccinated, so there are susceptible people,” Troisi said. She also worries because of the contagious nature of the disease: People don’t show symptoms before they become infectious, and the virus can stay in the air for up to two hours, even after a person with the virus leaves the area.

“Measles is the most infectious virus we know. However, it’s a harbinger of low vaccination rates, and it is quite likely we will start seeing outbreaks of other diseases that are vaccine preventable as well as these vaccine rates decrease,” Troisi said.

Even the 124 cases identified in Texas are likely an undercount, according to Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He says some children may not be seeking medical care or could still be waiting for laboratory confirmation. Texas health officials have listed several public spaces, including a university campus, a museum and convenience stores, where measles exposures may have occurred in recent weeks.

Hotez worries specifically about an upcoming rodeo in Houston that draws families from West Texas.

“It will continue as long as the virus continues to find unvaccinated kids. And unfortunately, the vaccination rates in many counties in West Texas are still unacceptably low. So that’s why I think it could go on for a while,” Hotez said.

CNN’s Amanda Sealy contributed to this report.