Portlanders passed the Arts Tax because they care about kids and they care about art. But it was flawed, and we always knew that. There have been many tweaks over the years, but now we are at a crisis point.
The closure of the international humanitarian law cell means that funding for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project, run by the Centre for Information Resilience, will also end. This project has been crucial in documenting incidents in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.
The evening, spearheaded by directors Sam Bardouil and Till Fellrath alongside patrons Monique Burger and Christine Würfel-Strauss, arrived at a fraught moment for Berlin, whose cultural scene faces funding cuts of roughly €130 million.
Muge Tuzcu Karakoc is certain that without an integration course, she would probably still not have properly settled in Germany by now. The Turkish journalist has been living in Germany for seven years. But it was only in 2024, when she started studying German every day alongside Ukrainians, Syrians, and Iranians that she felt the country she now lives in really opened its doors to her.
Ten days before schools reopen for the summer term in eastern Zimbabwe, Hellen Tibu is worried about how she will pay the fees for her sister's education. The 22-year-old landmine-disposal expert smooths the creases from her younger sister's uniform as it hangs on the washing line outside a relative's rooms in Sakubva, a densely populated township in Mutare. The shirt is faded around the collar and a new one is needed.
When did you last read a good news story about classical music? Think of the stories that have made the headlines in recent years: funding cuts to national opera companies, closure threats to university music departments, councils axing local provision, classroom music-making in decline. Successes reported only tend to be reprieves or salvages in the face of such crises, fought for by a sector running out of fuel to keep defending itself.
The Trump administration on Tuesday evening unexpectedly canceled up to $1.9bn in funding for substance use and mental health care, which providers say will immediately affect thousands of patients. It feels like Armageddon for everyone who's on the frontlines of the addiction and mental health space, said Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery.
In a new executive order, President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will withdraw from 66 international organizations and bodies, including several focused on tackling climate change. Trump made his disregard for climate change clear when he withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement for a second time in early 2025, but these new withdrawals further confirm the second Trump administration is against global collaboration in general.
There was a time not that long ago in the United States when the federal government did not warn people about tsunamis in the aftermath of earthquakes. We learned the hard way - after a deadly wave traveled all the way across the Pacific - why we needed to invest in such a system. MIKE WEST: It was started in 1946, after an earthquake from Alaska killed 150 people in Hawaii.
AAP learned this week that seven grants to AAP under the US Department of Health and Human Services are being terminated. This vital work spanned multiple child health priorities, including reducing sudden infant death, rural access to health care, mental health, adolescent health, supporting children with birth defects, early identification of autism, and prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, among other topics.
After battling illness for years, Nancy Karipa tested positive for HIV in 1999. She had just given birth to her first child. It was a crossroads moment for me, with the fear of denial, but I chose action, Karipa, who is now in her 50s, said at an Aids awareness event in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby in December. She and the baby received treatment, and her child remains healthy.
In this critical moment where resources are scarce and journalists are desperate to offer deeper, more impactful content, 2026 must be the defining year for strategic mergers and radical resource sharing. This is not merely an option; it is the only viable strategy to better serve audiences and ensure organizational survival. We must operate with the conviction that the sum is greater than the parts, or else risk diluting our impact into irrelevance.
For the first time since 1988, the U.S. government will not commemorate World AIDS Day. With very little explanation and almost no lead time, it appears that the Trump Administration has decided to break with nearly 40 years of bipartisan precedent. In doing this, the administration also seems to be breaking once again with President Trump himself, who in 2019 called for the establishment of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, which led to a stunning 21% decline in new infections in America's most affected jurisdictions.
In a letter to staff, ZSL's chair of trustees, Jim Smith, wrote that an investigation into claims of unacceptable workplace behaviour found that Matthew Gould's conduct fell below the standard we expect. He resigned before this investigation had concluded. We are committed to living up to our values at every level of the organisation and ensuring a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace for everyone.
As "narrative change" has become a trending topic in philanthropy, the work of liberation movements risks being overshadowed and co-opted by funder-driven frameworks that have a history of eroding the deeper, more durable efforts led by the individuals, organizations, and networks on the front lines of change. In a time of political targeting of civil society, it becomes all the more important to protect and build from the groundwork that's been laid
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.
Fragmented and stop-start technology investment has resulted in the police being slow to adopt new technologies - and benefit from the expected productivity improvements - at a national level, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO). The UK's independent public spending watchdog said that in the financial year 2024-25, His Majesty's Treasury provided £234 million over four years to help fund investments in police technology, including £55.5 million in that year.
My district is home to some of the most active senior centers in the city, as well as beautiful libraries. Unfortunately, many of the institutions are under threat from federal funding cuts. In order for these havens of lifelong learning to continue to provide the highest quality services possible we need to ensure that funding can be replaced by the city.
Democracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI. Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power.
We are here to serve our communities and to fulfill our mission of giving them news, giving them entertainment, giving them emergency alerts and giving them school closings. We do lost and found pet notices. We do funeral announcements. We have a listing of community events that is read multiple times a day. We do weather forecasts. We're a critical part of the community, Smith told Al Jazeera.
The U.S. Department of Justice through the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) provides grant funding to combat human trafficking, but the monies expired last month. Applications to renew funding are not available presently. The grant covered funding for advocates, training for trauma-informed interviewing and overtime, hampers the county's ability to fund operations during the sporting events, according to attorney Bryan Slater, who oversees human trafficking prosecutors in the District Attorney's office.
"Emotionally, it stings," said Whited, associate professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, fighting back tears. "It feels very personal. It took me 19 years to build this axolotl colony and research program with a goal to ultimately help human lives. It couldn't have come at a worse time."
But the proposed deal, announced in June, appears to have come as a surprise to the School Board, which now says in a state court lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami that the proposed acquisition is not authorized under the Media Group's management contract that has been in force since 2022. Moreover, the money earmarked to pay for WFLM belongs to WLRN, not the Media Group, the lawsuit asserts.
