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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm RYLAND Barton. The U.S. government has indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro on charges including murder in connection with the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft that killed four people, three of them U.S. citizens. It comes as the Trump administration escalates pressure on the country's socialist government. NPR's Eder Peralta has more on what could come next.
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I think everyone's thinking the same thing. They're looking at Venezuela, where the United States had indicted now former President Nicolas Maduro of drug trafficking. And this January, American soldiers swooped into Caracas and they brought him to a jail in Brooklyn. I spoke to Michael Bustamante, who studies Cuba at the University of Miami, and he says clearly the US has been ratcheting up pressure on the Cubans. The US has enacted a de facto oil blockade. They've announced new sanctions on basically the whole Cuban leadership. And Bustamante says the thing the Trump administration was missing was a pretext for some kind of military action, and this might be exactly that.
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NPR's Ader Peralta reporting. SpaceX revealed plans today to sell shares to the public in what will likely be the biggest ever initial public offering. It's unclear how much SpaceX plans to raise, but it could surpass the debut of Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. SpaceX has gotten several contracts with government agencies like NASA and the Defense Department from rocking rocket launches and satellite systems. The move would make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is making big changes to an important scientific panel, as NPR's Ping Huang reports. The panel creates guidelines that affect hundreds of millions of Americans.
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If you've ever gotten a routine mammogram or a colonoscopy or screening for depression in a physical, it's because of guidelines created by the U.S. preventive Services Task Force. The panel of primary care clinicians recommend screenings and services people should and shouldn't get based on scientific reviews. Kennedy fired the two top physicians leading the panel. He's called the task force negligent and vowed to shake it up. Dr. Alex Crist is a family physician and former chair of the panel.
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The task force, it's been the North Star on how do we make guidelines, and it's had such an influence on prevention and health in America. To just throw this out is just reckless.
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Health officials plan to name new members to the panel in June. Ping Huang, NPR News, Tennessee officials will
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pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed over a Facebook post he made joking about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Retired police officer Larry Buschard spent 37 days in jail before authorities dropped the felony charge against him. The Perry county sheriff said the posts alarmed residents. Bouchardt says he was exercising his free speech rights and never should have been arrested. US Stock market bounced back today. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Healthcare workers in Congo say they are underprotected and under trained amid a rapidly spreading outbreak of Ebola. The World Health Organization says the outbreak poses a low global risk, but local case numbers will increase. The arrival of any potential vaccine is months away. A new report says the global aid system is failing to address global humanitarian and health crises. NPR's Fatima Tanis has more on the findings of the report from the Lancet Commission on Health and the Johns Hopkins center for Humanitarian Health.
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The authors say the aid sector has essentially become a big business driven by power, money and prestige. They say it's fragmented under resourced, unequal and politicized. In interviews with hundreds of aid recipients, researchers learned that people couldn't really differentiate between the various NGOs and United nations agencies. Aid workers, on the other hand, said donors were dictating where the money should go. The report suggests big reforms are needed, like shifting the power of decision making making from donors to affected communities, and that money is flowing based on need, not politics. With the global aid system in flux now due to the funding cuts, researchers say it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform the system. Fatma Tanis, NPR News.
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A beloved feline at Nebraska's State House is retiring from public life. Cameron, the Capitol cat, lived in a condo near the seat of power in Lincoln, but he's moving to a new home with his caretaker. According to Nebraska Public Media, Cameron took his civic duty duties seriously and frequented the Capitol to ensure lawmakers were enacting the will of the people. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
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