Latest News
US federal websites scrub vaccine data and LGBT references
The Trump administration has scrubbed references to LGBT health, and information on certain vaccines from federal websites, including top public health agencies.
The move follows a Wednesday memo instructing agencies to end all “programs that use taxpayer money to promote gender ideology” and disable related information from websites by Friday afternoon.
Trump has already issued executive orders that banned diversity, equity and inclusion in the government, as well as one that recognised two sexes male and female.
Asked by reporters on Friday if websites would be shut down to remove diversity-related content, he said: “If they want to scrub the websites, that’s OK with me.”
DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.
Their backers say they address historical or ongoing discrimination and under-representation of certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics argue such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.
On Saturday, leading public health agencies appeared to have culled webpages that discussed gender, sexually transmitted diseases, and LGBT health.
Several web pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now display error messages.
The agency’s website contains a yellow banner message that reads, “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders”.
CDC webpages that previously contained such data on youth, transgender and LGBT health contained “page not found” messages on Saturday morning.
The CDC serves as a critical repository for official government health data and research.
The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) seems to have disappeared from its landing pages. The ongoing study focused on topics such as nutrition, mental health, physical activity, and sexual activity for high school students.
The tool used to explore the data is now offline.
A version of the page captured by the internet archive the WayBack Machine, shows the page was live as recently as mid-January.
The archived pages show that one aspect of study included children who “felt that they were ever treated badly or unfairly because they are or people think they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning”.
Another page dedicated to ‘Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth’ was also not available on Saturday morning, though the page is archived by the WayBack Machine.
A page that collated data related to ‘Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth’ also appears to be gone.
“Stigma, discrimination, and other factors put them at increased risk for negative health and life outcomes,” an archived version of the page states.
[BBC]
US President Donald Trump has filed a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida.
The BBC apologised to Trump last month, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any “basis for a defamation claim”.
Trump’s legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech”. The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump told reporters of his plans. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given “the mistaken impression” he had “made a direct call for violent action”, but disagreed that there was basis for a defamation claim.
In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised how the speech was edited, and led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness.
Before Trump filed the lawsuit, lawyers for the BBC had given a lengthy response to the president’s claims.
They said there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, as he was re-elected shortly after it aired.
They also said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama programme on its US channels. While the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.
In his lawsuit, Trump cites agreements the BBC had with other distributors to show content, specifically one with a third-party media corporation that allegedly had licensing rights to the documentary outside the UK. The BBC has not responded to these claims, nor has the corporation with the alleged distribution agreement.
The suit also claims that people in Florida may have accessed the programme using a VPN or by using streaming service BritBox.
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed,” the lawsuit said
(BBC)
The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 06:00AM on 16th December 2025 shows that 70,297 persons belonging to 22,338 house holds are still being housed at 731 safety centers established by the government.
The number of deaths due to the recent disastrous weather stands at 643 while 183 persons are missing.
Latest News
Bondi Beach gunmen who killed 15 after targeting Jewish celebration were father and son, police say
New South Wales Police say 15 people, including a 10 year old girl were killed in a shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday – their ages range from 10 to 87
The attack happened while an event was being held to mark the start of Hanukkah – police say they’re treating it as a terror incident
The two gunmen were father and son, police say. The 50-year-old man also died at the scene while the 24-year-old remains in hospital in critical condition
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls the attack “an act of pure evil” that “deliberately targeted” the Jewish community
(BBC)
Trump files $5bn defamation lawsuit against BBC over Panorama speech edit
UK and South Korea strike trade deal
Rob Reiner’s son Nick arrested for murder after director and wife found dead
70,297 persons still in safety centers
Showers will occur at times in the Northern, North-Central, Eastern, Uva and Central provinces
MEPA to crack down on marine polluters
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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