Senate Republicans Unveil Health Plan – After weeks of working in secret, and just days before Congress goes on summer recess, Senate Republican leaders have revealed the “Better Care Reconciliation Act,” their plan to dismantle the health reform law. The plan contains drastic cuts to Medicaid, eliminates the individual mandate and grants tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. It does preserve certain subsidies and coverage for children, although its guarantees for persons with preexisting conditions are under debate. From Washington, José López Zamorano has the details.
Clergy Attempt to Visit Immigration Detainees on Hunger Strike – More than 50 religious activists showed up at the doors of the Adelanto Detention Facility in California in an to attempt to console a group of refugees that has declared a hunger strike. The detainees are fasting to protest high bail bonds and mistreatment, as well as to demand asylum, an action that coincides with another hunger strike by dozens of detainees in a detention center in Tacoma, Washington. Authorities at the facility denied entry to the religious activists. Our correspondent in Los Angeles, Ruben Tapia, was present at the event.
Trump Hardens Cuba Policy, Ordering Restrictions on Travelers and Businesses – President Trump signed an order in recent days that would undo President Obama’s Cuba policy, imposing sanctions on U.S. firms that do business in Cuba and tourists traveling to the island. Trump made the announcement in Little Havana in Miami, the hub for Cuban-Americans. Our executive producer, Samuel Orozco, spoke about the reach of these restrictions with Professor María Isabel Alfonso of the New York-based Cuban Americans for Engagement.
