Congress mulls another tiktok ban; An aid ship heads to Gaza as hunger worsens: How little can you do?

More than a third of Americans attend community colleges to raise children while they earn a college degree. Many have incomes at or near the poverty line, which means they’re eligible for federally-funded Head Start child care programs. They might not know that or that they have a way to access them. A new initiative from the Association of Community College Trustees and the National Head Start Association aims to bring facilities for kids, parents and child care workers to campuses across the country.

Resistance training is good for women. Women who do strength exercises — whether with weight machines, resistance bands or bodyweight exercises — two to three days a week are more likely to live longer and have a lower risk of death from heart disease compared to those who do none, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Here’s how even a little can go a long way:

Source: Congress mulls another TikTok ban; An aid ship heads to Gaza as hunger worsens

Democracy in the News: Organizing the World Central Kitchen to Help Palestinians Evade the Israeli-Hamas War and Mitigate Immigrant Abuse

Right-wing figures such as Trump are spreading misinformation about how many immigrants vote. The memo was sent to NPR by a former adviser to the Trump administration who claimed that undocumented immigrants were exploiting the election system. NPR’s Miles Parks reports that conspiracy theories about noncitizens voting have plagued U.S. politics for over a century, but could hold new power this year due to the increase in migrants at the southern U.S. border.

The first aid ship is on its way to Gaza, more than five months into the war between Israel and Hamas. Open Arms — named after the Spanish aid organization that owns and runs it — departed from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Tuesday, pulling a barge loaded with nearly 200 tons of food from the U.S.-based nonprofit World Central Kitchen. The shipment comes as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving and on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.

Prominent TikTok creators question the bill. Charlotte said that she didn’t think the bill would protect Americans, but it’s unclear. I find it to be very silly, but I think that it is a great example of American politics, where people do not understand technology trying to regulate it.

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H.R. 7521: Stopping Chinese Influence Operations at TikTok, and Implications for Up-and-coming Social Media Platforms

In speeches leading up to the vote on H.R. 7521, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, members of Congress highlighted the many security concerns with the app, including the potential for employees at the Chinese company to access American user data, and the spread of pro-China propaganda.

The bill could be used to force a sale of the social media platform, particularly mentioning X, which is now owned by Musk, according to the Representative.

But Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove noted that Chinese influence operations are not restricted to TikTok. Meta removed a Chinese influence operation from some of its platforms that had targeted the US. Some smaller networks had also targeted users in India and Tibet.

The negative short-term effect on Dieux would be lessened if TikTok were to be shut down, says Palermino. “Losing that would be challenging,” she says. While she’s confident Dieux could pivot to focus on other platforms, she suspects a TikTok ban could seriously impact other independent and up-and-coming brands within the United States in a big way. “It will hurt their business.”

Sigourney Norman is an artist and former lawyer who uses TikTok to discuss politics, race, gender, and sexuality.