Latest news with #TheIndependent
The Independent
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Photos of the Cholita Paceña contest that honors Aymara women
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
Hindustan Times
10 hours ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
US teen walks off 120-ft cliff while hallucinating due to altitude sickness; in coma
A 14-year-old boy from California walked off a 120-feet cliff while hallucinating due to altitude sickness. Zane's father Ryan Wach said that during the 19 hour-hike, his son began showing signs of altitude sickness. (Go Fund Me) The boy, identified as Zane Wach, fell from Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in front of his father on June 10, according to the New York Post. He is currently in a medically induced coma. He sustained severe injuries including head trauma, a broken ankle, finger and pelvis, the New York Post reported citing SFGate. Zane's father Ryan Wach said that during the 19 hour-hike, his son began showing signs of altitude sickness, following which both of them started climbing down the mountain. Ryan told The Independent that Zane's altitude sickness was 'not too severe' initially, adding that he was confident about his son's ability. 'He's in better shape than I am," Ryan said. He further said that his son had hiked previously and used to regularly compete in distance running, swimming and triathlons. Therefore, Ryan said that he thought the hike could be an introduction to mountaineering for Zane. But once the tough parts of the hike were over, Ryan exhibited signs of altitude sickness, compelling his father to take a safer route to trace the seven mile-descent to their car. However, Ryan said that things started to get worse as they started climbing down the mountain. Zane started to experience hallucinations, his father said, adding that the teenager was aware of his condition. 'He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog,' Ryan told SFGate. 'He essentially started to doubt reality' The father said that he was keeping a close eye on his son, but his symptoms got 'considerably better' after a while. But an hour later, Zane once again started hallucinating and "essentially started to doubt reality'. On their way down the trail, Zane told his father that they had already completed the hike 'multiple times over'. Recalling this as 'completely bizarre', Ryan said that Zane's behaviour could be a combination of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, dehydration and the effect of altitude sickness. 'He told me he couldn't tell if he was dreaming or not, and he would shake his head in disbelief, like, 'This is not real.' Like he was in the movie 'Inception' or something," Ryan said. While a separate group of hikers called for a search and rescue team to get Zane down the mountain, the teenager seemed like he was 'sleepwalking'. 'He started dragging his feet and stopped in his tracks,' Ryan said, adding that Zane did not want to continue. The teenager tried to get near the slope twice, once telling his father that he was going to the car, and the second time saying he was getting dinner. Seeing Zane's behaviour, Ryan became emotional and let him go briefly, according to the New York Post. 'This time, I didn't hear it until he was about at the edge, and when I went to reach for him, he was 10 feet away from me. I couldn't get him, and he walked off the edge," Ryan said. Following this, Ryan ran to get his son, meeting an EMT on the way, who helped with relief efforts. However, it took six hours for Zane to be rescued from the mountain. He was then taken to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, and later shifted to the Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas, according to SFGate. Ryan said that his son's condition was improving, and that he had opened his eyes briefly on Wednesday. A GoFundMe campaign to pay for Zane's medical expenses has collected $23,000, which will also assist the family with their travel costs, lodging and more. 'It's going to be a survival story in the end, but right now we're still in the middle of it,' Zane's father Ryan said.
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Justice Department abruptly fires 3 prosecutors involved in Jan. 6 criminal cases, AP sources say
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Republicans are worried ‘too many Medicaid cuts' will derail Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
Senate Republicans might miss their self-imposed deadline to pass President Donald Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' because they remain too divided over potential cuts to Medicaid. 'There's too many Medicaid cuts in there,' Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told The Independent. Hawley and other Republicans from states with large rural populations fear a proposed limit on states' ability to tax health care providers will force states to cut their Medicaid programs. The American Hospital Association has warned that cuts to Medicaid could be 'devastating' for rural hospitals, which typically have larger shares of patients without health insurance. Budget analysts argue that billions of dollars in reduced federal Medicaid spending could result in millions of uninsured Americans. Poll after poll shows that the bill remains incredibly unpopular among voters. But Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas blamed the press for the bill's unpopularity. 'They certainly have cornered the bill into a little piece,' Marshall told The Independent. 'So I think it's our job is to present it piece by piece and make our case to the American public.' Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee circulated a memo about a potential $15 billion stabilization fund for rural hospitals in an attempt to win over skeptical Republicans, Punchbowl News reported. But 'that wouldn't be sufficient,' Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told The Independent. Tillis, who faces a difficult re-election in a state Trump barely won, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from a state with a large rural population, was crafting another proposal 'more reflective of the need' of rural hospitals. Hawley said he wanted to take a look at the proposal before throwing his support behind it. 'I want to be sure that it's actually going to flow directly to rural hospitals,' he said. 'It's going to help hospitals in my state and replace a good portion of the funds that we're losing because of the provider tax, the ill-considered provider taxes.' Trump has said he wants the bill to be passed by the Fourth of July and called on Republicans to stay in Washington until the bill's passage. 'To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don't go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK. Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. 'NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT'S DONE.' The bill seeks to extend the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed during his first term and increase spending for immigration enforcement, the military and oil exploration. Trump's biggest supporters in the Senate say they would vote for a motion to proceed. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told The Independent that he would vote on a motion to proceed on the bill so it could pass this weekend. 'Absolutely,' he said. 'Not just a 'yes' but a 'hell yes.'' But not everyone is as sure. 'Do we have a bill yet?' Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a major critic of the legislation, told The Independent. 'I think there's being pressure applied.' Republicans, who have only 53 seats in the Senate, plan to sidestep a Democratic filibuster by passing the bill using the reconciliation process, which allows a bill to pass with a simple majority if it relates to the budget. Stephen Miran, the Trump administration's chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, addressed the criticisms from moderates in the Senate. 'We don't really have the in-depth analysis of Medicaid in this paper, or of health insurance and healthcare markets in this paper, it is a super important area we've done some work on in the past,' Miran told reporters. Miran said that failing to pass the bill could result in 9 million people losing their health insurance because of the economic consequences. 'We want to avoid the biggest tax hike in history,' Miran said. 'We want to avoid plunging the economy into a recession as a result thereof. And we want to avoid te approximately 9 million sort of just flat-out losses of health insurance across the economy that occurs as a result of that.' But even if Senate Republicans manage to pass the bill, it would still need to go back to the House of Representatives, where many GOP members might want to change significant parts of the legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Republicans need to act quickly. 'One thing we can't do is punt,' he told The Independent.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats wrestle over chance to kill the ban on transgender care in Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful Bill'
Despite being in the minority, Democrats have a chance to remove a provision from President Donald Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' that would prevent Medicaid dollars from being used to cover gender-affirming care.' The question is, will they? The issue emerges more than eight months after a 2024 election from which Democrats are still digging out and also working out their messaging about how to defend the rights of transgender people without being painted as too radical by Republicans. In the presidential race, Trump and his associated super PACS hit Kamala Harris in ads for supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for inmates, ending the ad by saying 'Kamala is for They/Them. President Trump is for you.' Republicans also hit Democrats in down-ballot races specifically on the subject of allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. That might be why when The Independent asked some top Democratic senators about whether they would try to strike the language from Republicans' bill, even some of the most liberal voices said they did not know . 'I don't know,' Sen. Chris Murphy told The Independent last week when asked if it could the strict criteria the Senate Parliamentarian would subject the bill to. Sen. Patty Murray, the vice chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, simply told The Independent, 'I haven't seen the language.' Murray later clarified on Bluesky that she opposed the ban in Medicaid. 'I had not seen the language but let me be clear: I support stripping out as much from the bill as Democrats can, including this ban.' But even liberal Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren dodged the question. 'I haven't seen it, ' she told The Independent last week when asked if she would raise a point of order on it. When asked if she was worried about it, she repeated, 'I haven't seen it.' The avoidance shows how Democrats are in the position of being on the defensive on an issue where Republicans think they can win against Democrats, while at the same time defending a vulnerable population the party has long said it would support. Some Democrats have said they would support efforts to challenge the language. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is the first openly gay person elected to the Senate, told The Independent earlier this month that she assumed Democrats would but that she had not seen the details of the legislation 'What I would say substantively is that, this is, again, talking about taking away people's health care, and taking parents' ability to decide what kind of health care their children need,' she said. The Republican bill in the House that passed through the House Energy & Commerce Committee banned Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance dollars from being used to provide gender-affirming care for minors. In a last-minute addition before the bill went to a vote on the floor, an amendment struck the term 'for minors' from the legislation, meaning it would put in place a blanket ban on gender-affirming care for all transgender people. The legislation would also prohibit coverage of gender transition care as an 'essential health benefit' offered by health care exchanges created in the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by former president Barack Obama. The Senate Finance Committee released the health care part of its version that is almost identical to the House version except it does not include the 'essential health benefit' provision. 'I obviously think these issues are private and personal,' Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee which is in charge of health care, told The Independent. Republicans, who have only 53 seats in the Senate, plan to pass the bill through the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority and avoid a filibuster as long as the legislation relates to the budget and federal spending. As part of the process, the legislation goes through the 'Byrd Bath,' named for late Senator Robert Byrd, where the Senate Parliamentarian determines whether parts of the legislation relate directly to the budget or are 'merely incidental.' Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who sponsored the amendment, told The Independent that he believes it will comply with the rules because it saves taxpayer dollars. But if the the Senate parliamentarian rules that part of the legislation does not comply with reconciliation rules, the majority party can still bring the amendment on the floor, but the minority party can raise a point of order. If Republicans want to waive the point of order, it would require three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes, vote to waive it. Sen Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said that he thought Democrats would likely challenge it. 'Well, we're certainly taking a look at all of the pieces of policy that don't belong in this type of bill,' he told The Independent. 'You don't put policy in there. That sure sounds like policy to me.' It also comes after when Republicans regularly criticized Democrats in campaign advertisements about allowing transgender athletes in women's sports. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who recently told The Dispatch that he opposes allowing transgender athletes in some women's sports, told The Independent he thought that Democrats would challenge the Medicaid ban. 'I think it's outside the boundaries of reconciliation,' Gallego told The Independent. Mady Castigan, independent journalist and advocate who has published updates on the bill and urged people to call their lawmakers about it, has been pushing for people to make calls to lawmakers to oppose the bill. 'I really doubt there's a ton of people calling and asking their senators to vote for this specific provision,' she said. 'But I guarantee you, there's a ton more calling in to oppose it, and whenever something like that happens, you know, it definitely swings the political calculations.' But as of right now, much of the future of the legislation is unclear because Senate Republicans have yet to release the tax and health care aspects of their bill. 'I would assume so, but I haven't seen the details of it,' Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, who is retiring, told The Independent about whether Democrats would challenge the ban. But other Democrats avoided the question. 'There's a whole list of stuff that's being scrubbed there. Both in the privilege scrub now and in the later point of order challenges, and I can't say any more than that,' Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told The Independent. This would not be the first time that Democrats and supporters of transgender rights pushed back on anti-transgender legislation. Earlier this year, Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would have banned transgender athletes from women's sports.
