A little help can go a long way for improving child care: Congress mulls another TikTok ban; An aid ship heads to Gaza as hunger worsens
More than a third of college students who go to community colleges raise kids while getting a degree. Many have incomes at or near the poverty line, which means they’re eligible for federally-funded Head Start child care programs. But they may not know that or have a convenient way to access them. A new initiative from the Association of Community College Trustees and the National Head Start Association aims to bring more such facilities to campuses across the country — to the benefit of kids, parents and child care workers.
Resistance training is beneficial for women. A study shows that women who do strength exercises for two to three days a week are less likely to die from heart disease than those who don’t. Here’s how even a little can go a long way:
How illegal are illegal immigrants in the U.S.? The case of Open Arms, the first aid ship bounding Gaza during the democratic vote on H.R. 7521
Trump and other right-wing figures are spreading baseless claims about undocumented immigrants voting by the millions. NPR acquired a memo circulated by attorney and former Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell that falsely implies undocumented immigrants are exploiting loopholes in the election system. According to NPR’s Miles Parks, the rise of migrants at the southern U.S. border could pose a challenge to U.S. politics in the future, but is also an factor that could hold new power this year.
The first aid ship is heading to Gaza for the war between Israel and Hamas. Open Arms, a Spanish aid organization that owns and runs it, took a barge loaded with food to the U.S. on Tuesday from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The United Nations says that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of famine.
In a statement released just after the vote, Representative Sara Jacobs, who opposed the bill, said, “As a member of both the House Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs Committees, I am keenly aware of the threat that PRC information operations can pose, especially as they relate to our elections … Banning TikTok won’t protect Americans from targeted misinformation or misuse of their personal data, which American data brokers routinely sell and share.”
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. You can get it delivered to your inbox if you subscribe here, and you can also listen to the Up First podcasts to get the news of the day.
In speeches leading up to the vote on H.R. 7521, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, members of Congress highlighted the many security concerns with the app, including the potential for employees at the Chinese company to access American user data, and the spread of pro-China propaganda.
The bill could force the sale of other social media platforms, particularly the one now owned by Elon Musk, according to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Representative Kamlager-Dove noted that influence operations are not limited to TikTok. Meta, the company, had removed a huge Chinese influence operation from its platforms that were aimed at the US. Users in India and Tibet were targeted by some smaller networks.
Palermino sees TikTok Shop as a valuable tool for small businesses and says shuttering TikTok would have a negative short-term effect on Dieux. “Losing that would be challenging,” she says. While she’s confident Dieux could pivot to focus on other platforms, she suspects a TikTok ban could seriously impact other independent and up-and-coming brands within the United States in a big way. “It will hurt their business.”
Sigourney Norman, an artist and former lawyer who uses TikTok to discuss politics, race, gender, and sexuality, says she doesn’t buy lawmakers’ arguments that the bill will help protect the data of American users.