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Student visa halt, Covid vaccine reversal and Gaza aid chaos

 
Today's IMMIGRATION story

Trump pauses all new foreign student visas

What happened
The Trump administration yesterday ordered all embassies and consulates abroad to stop scheduling international student visa interviews in preparation for expanded vetting of social media accounts, according to a cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by several news organizations. 

Who said what
Rubio's directive arrived as President Donald Trump continues "trying to coerce Harvard University and other institutions to restrict what can be said on campuses, with a particular focus on anti-Israel speech," The New York Times said. The administration has revoked hundreds of visas and warned that "student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza," Reuters said. Rubio has characterized that criticism as "a threat to U.S. foreign policy," while critics have "called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment." 

Previous First Amendment case law "makes what the State Department has been doing legally questionable for students inside the country," Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy think tank, told The Washington Post. Barring students "before they get to the U.S." would "cut off legal avenues that people would have once they’re in the U.S."

Extended social media vetting "could severely slow down student visa processing," hurting the "many universities who rely heavily on foreign students" for their budgets and to fill research positions, Politico said. "Some colleges shifted to enrolling more international students, who often pay full tuition," to "make up for cuts in federal research funding," The Associated Press said. The roughly 1.3 million foreign students in the U.S. also bring "billions of dollars" to the economy and bolster the U.S. "science and technology sectors," the Post said.

What next?
The interview halt is "intended to be temporary," AP said, but an "extended pause in scheduling student visas could lead to delays" that disrupt summer and fall term enrollment for foreign "college, boarding-school or exchange students."

 
 
Today's Health policy story

RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids

What happened
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend Covid-19 shots for "healthy children and healthy pregnant women." He announced the policy change in a social media video in which no CDC officials appeared. 

Who said what
"CDC officials were not informed in advance of Kennedy's decision," The Washington Post said, citing a former agency official. Public health experts "immediately questioned" the announcement, The Associated Press said, in part because Kennedy, a "leading anti-vaccine advocate," bypassed a "scientific review process that has been in place for decades, in which experts — in public meetings — review current medical evidence and hash out" policy recommendations.

Pregnant women are "at high risk of severe illness and complications from Covid," and vaccinating them also "extends the protection to their unborn until the babies are about 6 months old," a period in which infants' risk of severe disease and hospitalization from the virus is "comparable to that among adults 65 and older," The New York Times said. Children previously vaccinated or exposed to Covid tend to have milder infections, but Kennedy "seems to have reneged on a promise" to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) "not to alter the childhood immunization schedule."

What next?
The CDC advisory panel on vaccines was scheduled to meet and vote on new recommendations in June, but Kennedy's decision "effectively voids that official step," the Times said. His new policy "throws insurance coverage of the vaccines" into question and will likely "create confusion among pharmacists who now largely administer the shots." 

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL Story

Starving Gazans overrun US-backed food aid hub

What happened
A controversial Gaza food aid operation backed by the U.S. and Israel descended into chaos yesterday as thousands of Palestinians overwhelmed the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's sole functioning distribution center. Nearby Israeli troops and tanks fired warning shots and helicopters shot flares as "desperate Palestinians" broke through a fence to get food, The Associated Press said.

Who said what
GHF said that after the number of Palestinians swelled at the Rafah hub, its staff "fell back" to "allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate," in line with established safety protocols. "There was some loss of control momentarily," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, but "happily, we brought it under control."

The United Nations and other aid groups are boycotting GHF, saying it "won't be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population," AP said. They also oppose the group's "use of facial recognition to vet recipients." Yesterday, "desperation for food" after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade trumped Gazans' "concern about biometric and other checks," Reuters said.

What next?
GHF said it handed out 8,000 food boxes yesterday, its second day of operation, but that constitutes "a mere trickle of assistance" given the vast need, The New York Times said. Meanwhile, unease over the war is building in Israel. "What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians," former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote in Haaretz. "Israel is committing war crimes."

 
 

It's not all bad

Francis Asiku uses the abundance of mangoes in his rural village to provide nutritious food to the community. A nurse in Uganda's Yumbe District, he launched the Mango Project nonprofit after patients kept coming to him with malnutrition. Mangoes often rotted during harvest due to a lack of refrigerators and poor preservation methods, so Asiku and his brother started canning the excess fruit and distributing jars. The happiness this brings people is "fulfilling," Asiku told The Christian Science Monitor.

 
 
Under the radar

Some gynecological procedures can be incredibly painful, and medical experts are finally acknowledging the need for change. Many of these procedures should be done with pain management, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, including IUD insertion and cervical and endometrial biopsies. There's an "urgent need for clinicians to better understand pain management options and recognize and address patient pain," said the organization, and for "patients to have more autonomy over pain control options for their health care."

This declaration follows a slew of anecdotes from women on the internet who have experienced excruciating pain during gynecological procedures. "Pain is tricky to study because of its subjectivity (not to mention, women's health is underfunded in general), so there's not as much conclusive research on the available options as many would prefer," said OB-GYN Rachel Blake to Self. 

Nevertheless, doctors "should advise patients on what to expect and discuss the options," said The New York Times. "Vulnerable populations," including those with a history of sexual violence, "should be given special consideration."

Women's pain has often been undersold or ignored in health care settings. This is particularly the case for patients with gynecological disorders, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. Those surveyed reported "clinician behavior that was dismissive and invalidating and led them to question their own experience or consider cessation of care altogether." 

The problem goes deep. "Historically, Black patients have received less analgesics than white patients," said ACOG, and "women have received less attention to their pain than men undergoing similar procedures."

 
 
On this day

May 28, 1961

British lawyer Peter Benenson launched the Appeal for Amnesty 1961, a campaign calling for the release of people imprisoned for their beliefs around the world. The movement later became Amnesty International, the world's leading human rights organization, which today has more than 10 million members and supporters around the world.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"Tax cheat spared by Trump" in  "pardon for a donor's son after a $1 million dinner," The New York Times says on Wednesday's front page. "Conflict-of-interest concerns rise again" as RNC spends "$676,456 at properties owned by Trump," The Palm Beach Post says. "Paramount sale bogged down after Trump suit," with critics saying proposed "60 Minutes" settlement "could be illegal payoff," says the Los Angeles Times. "DOJ asserts wide scope for Jan. 6 pardons," The Washington Post says. "U.S. cities see major surge in hot days," USA Today says, and a "third of adults consult astrology, tarot cards."

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Wingin' it

A mallard caught on a Swiss police speed camera flying 32 mph in a 20 mph zone appears to be a repeat offender. After the duck triggered speed radar along a road near Bern, police officers discovered that a "similar-looking duck" was recorded flying in the "same spot at exactly the same speed on exactly the same date seven years earlier," said Agence France-Presse. Amid public speculation on the authenticity of the photos, police said radar images are sealed and cannot be manipulated.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Ken Cedeno / UPI / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images; AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Marian Femenias Moratinos / Getty Images