medical

Manchester United are on the verge of signing Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford with a medical understood to be imminent.

Manchester United have reportedly agreed to sign Cameroon winger Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford in a deal worth an initial $87m as Ruben Amorim steps up his overhaul of the team’s misfiring attack.

Mbeumo attracted Amorim’s attention with 20 goals in 38 Premier League games for Brentford last season.

Tottenham, now managed by former Brentford boss Thomas Frank, were also chasing the 25-year-old before United’s improved offer sealed the deal after their two previous bids were rebuffed.

United will pay an additional 6 million pounds ($8.07m) in potential add-ons to Brentford.

Mbeumo is due to undergo a medical in time to travel to the United States on Tuesday as Amorim’s men start their pre-season tour.

He is set to become United’s third signing since the end of last season, joining Wolves forward Matheus Cunha and teenage Paraguayan defender Diego Leon at Old Trafford.

Amorim has been determined to revamp United’s forward options after a woeful campaign.

They suffered a toothless 1-0 defeat against Tottenham in the Europa League final and a 15th-place finish in the top flight that ranked as their lowest since 1973-74.

Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee struggled as Amorim’s main strikers last term.

Amorim has reportedly told Alejandro Garnacho to look for a new club, while Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are expected to leave following their loan spells at Aston Villa and Chelsea, respectively.

Mbeumo will be Amorim’s latest new recruit in his bid to revitalise moribund United.

Having already paid 62.5 million pounds ($84.03m) for Cunha, United’s spending spree comes despite their failure to qualify for the Champions League costing the club a minimum of 70 million pounds ($94.11m).

The versatile Mbeumo is able to operate in a variety of roles on the flanks or in central attacking areas.

His pace, creativity and clinical finishing should be a significant boost to United.

Mbeumo blossomed in six years at Brentford, scoring 70 goals and providing 51 assists in 242 appearances in all competitions following his move from French club Troyes in 2019.

He helped the Bees win promotion to the Premier League in 2021 and was instrumental in their impressive 10th-place finish in 2024-25.

All five seasons of a hit US medical drama are now available to stream on the platform

A “hidden gem” medical drama that had fans “hooked” is now streaming on Prime Video.

Based on Eric Manheimer’s 2012 memoir, New Amsterdam follows the journey of Dr Max Goodwin (played by Ryan Eggold) as he takes on the role of medical director at one of America’s oldest public hospitals.

In his new position, Max is determined to overhaul the neglected institution, cutting through red tape to deliver outstanding care to patients.

The series, which debuted in 2018, also features Freema Agyeman, Janet Montgomery, Jocko Sims, Anupam Kher, Tyler Labine and Sandra Mae Frank.

After a successful four-year run on NBC, it was revealed in 2022 that the show would conclude with its fifth season, comprising 13 episodes, reports Surrey Live.

New Amsterdam can already be streamed in its entirety on Netflix, Sky and NOW, but now all five seasons have been added to Prime Video as well.

If you’re new or haven’t held a Prime membership for a full year, you can get a 30-day free trial of the complete Prime service (not just Prime Video) directly from Amazon.

Pricing in the UK stands at £8.99 per month or £95 per year. To enjoy the premium ad-free service, you’ll need to shell out an additional £2.99 per month.

Throughout its original run, New Amsterdam garnered mixed reviews from critics, who felt the show didn’t push any boundaries.

However, its audience was much more enthusiastic, with many preferring the drama over its medical rival Grey’s Anatomy.

“I was impressed by the social commentary in the writing! Well acted. All the usual obvious stuff but a few hidden gems for the few who still want to enjoy a show about life,” one viewer penned on IMDb.

Another chimed in: “This show looks at the human side of medicine and that is refreshing. In my opinion, it’s better than Grey’s Anatomy.”

A third shared: “Finally a medical drama without the usual drama. It’s not about the endless romance between the doctors and nurses, it is really focused about the medical aspect of the hospital. The characters are very refreshing and particularly Ryan Eggold is so endearing in his first remarkable role.”

Echoing the sentiment, a fourth fan wrote: “One of the best medical dramas I’ve seen. It had me hooked from the first episode.”

New Amsterdam is available to stream on Prime Video

The nation’s priorities are now crystal clear.

We are adding ICE and Border Patrol agents, activating troops and invading American neighborhoods, including L.A.’s MacArthur Park on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, we are getting rid of medical researchers and weather forecasters, even as extreme and deadly weather events become more common.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

You would think — based on the priorities in President Trump’s budget, tax and policy bill approved last week — that immigration is the greatest threat to our health and security.

It’s not.

But billions of dollars have been added for border and ICE agents while billions more have been trimmed from medical, climate and weather-related resources.

On Monday morning, federal agents on horseback and in armored vehicles descended on MacArthur Park in a show of force. Children playing in the park were ushered to safer ground, Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference.

“Frankly it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in our parks,” Bass said, adding that she didn’t know if anyone was even detained.

“It’s a political agenda of provoking fear and terror,” she said.

The event “looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

MacArthur Park has a sizable undocumented immigrant population, and a lot of big problems to tackle — homelessness, a wide-open drug trade and gang activity. On some days areas of the park were unusable for families. First responders rolled out on overdose calls, addicts took over an alley, and merchants struggled to stay open amid all the mayhem.

In December, people sit at the corner of Alvarado Street and Wilshire Boulevard, an area known for illegal drug use in the Westlake neighborhood.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

As I found last year over the course of several months on the ground, local officials waited too long and moved too slowly in response to the long-festering crisis.

But a silly military parade isn’t going to help, unless they actually were going after undocumented drug lords — but there was no immediate evidence of that.

If the federal government wanted to help, L.A. could use more support for housing, drug interdiction and treatment. It could use a more stable and equitable economy that’s not undermined by tariff uncertainties and the president’s taunts of trading partners.

As we know in California, countless industries rely on undocumented laborers. It’s an open secret, and has been for decades, not just in the Golden State but across the nation, and yet Washington has been unable to put together a sensible immigration reform package over the years.

Congress got close last fall, but do I need to remind you what happened?

That’s right. Trump threatened lackey GOP Congressman, ordering the spineless ninnies to pull their support.

Every time I see a helicopter now in L.A. — and as we know, they’re like mosquitoes up there — I wonder if Trump has sent in the Air Force, with bombers coming in behind them.

My colleague Rachel Uranga recently reported that “ICE has not released data on criminal records of detainees booked into its custody.” But nonpublic data from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, “showed about 9 out of 10 had never been convicted of a violent or property crime, and 30% have no criminal record. The most frequent crimes are immigration and traffic offenses.”

It’s nothing to warrant the terrorizing of neighborhoods and communities, nothing to warrant armed, masked agents of unknown identities and agencies roaming our streets and nabbing workers at car washes, Home Depots and restaurants.

Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

It’s almost as terrifying as several other real and existential threats:

An anti-vax crackpot is in charge of the nation’s healthcare and medical research system.

Trump’s Big Bonehead Bill calls for an $18-billion cut for the National Institutes of Health.

Some of the leading researchers in medicine and science are leaving the country in a trend that could end up being a catastrophic brain drain.

I got an email the other day from the Social Security Administration informing me the “(SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill.” I thought it was a joke at first — a satirical take on the rise of an authoritarian regime.

But it was real, and so are the cuts to the National Weather Service, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Meteorologists say extreme weather events like the rainstorms that led to a river surge and killed dozens of children and adults in Texas’ Hill Country over the holiday weekend are going to become more common.

Florida had a record-tying number of hurricanes in 2024 with 11 of them, and $130 billion in damage.

Wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in Southern California last year and are becoming ever-more common around the world.

Temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea smashed records for June, and scientists are warning of dire impacts on sea life and food chains.

To the president and his minions, the crisis is overblown.

It’s fake news.

And the federal government can’t be distracted from its core mission.

The week is young, and there’s no telling which L.A. neighborhood will be invaded next.

[email protected]

SACRAMENTO — California really does still have a Legislature, even if you haven’t been reading or hearing much about it. In fact, it’s currently making a ton of weighty decisions.

They’ll affect many millions of Californians — with a gamut of new laws and hefty spending.

But the lawmakers’ moves have been slipping under the news radar because of our focus on more compelling non-Sacramento events — including protests against overzealous federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, President Trump’s power trip of calling up the California National Guard over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla’s being shoved to the floor and handcuffed for simply trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question.

Plus congressional wrangling over Trump’s “Big Beautiful” ugly, debt-hiking bill — and the eruption of a Middle East war.

Meanwhile, it’s one of the busiest and most important periods of the year in the state Capitol. This is budget time, when the Legislature and governor decide how to spend our tax dollars.

The Legislature passed a $325-billion so-called budget June 13, beating its constitutional deadline by two days. If it hadn’t, the lawmakers would have forfeited their pay. But although that measure counted legally as a budget, it lacked lots of details that still are being negotiated between legislative leaders and Newsom.

The final agreements will be tucked into a supplementary measure amending the main budget bill. That will be followed by a long line of “trailer bills” containing even more policy specifics — all currently being hammered out, mostly in back rooms.

The target date for conclusion of this Byzantine process is Friday. The annual budget will take effect July 1.

Some budget-related issues are of special interest to me and I’ve written about them previously. So, the rest of this column is what we call in the news trade a “follow” — a report on where those matters stand.

Prop. 36

For starters, there’s Proposition 36 funding.

Californians cast more votes for Proposition 36 last year than anything else on the ballot. The measure passed with 68% of the vote, carrying all 58 counties.

Inspired by escalating retail theft, the initiative toughened penalties for certain property and hard-drug crimes, such as peddling deadly fentanyl. But it offered a carrot to drug-addicted serial criminals. Many could be offered treatment rather than jail time.

Proposition 36 needs state money for the treatment, more probation officers to supervise the addicts’ progress and additional law enforcement costs. The measure’s backers estimate a $250-million annual tab.

Newsom, however, was an outspoken opponent of the proposition. He didn’t provide any funding for it in his original budget proposal and stiffed it again last month when revising the spending plan.

But legislative leaders insisted on some funding and agreed on a one-time appropriation of $110 million.

Woefully inadequate, the measure’s backers contend. They’re pushing for more. But some fear Newsom might even veto the $110 million, although this seems doubtful, given the public anger that could generate.

Greg Totten, chief executive of the California District Attorneys Assn., which sponsored the initiative, says more money is especially needed to hire additional probation officers. Treatment without probation won’t work, he insists.

Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) is trying to change the $110-million allocation mix. There’s nothing earmarked for county sheriffs who now are handling lots more arrests, she says.

“I want to make sure we uphold the voters’ wishes and are getting people into drug treatment,” Blakespear says. “This passed by such a high percentage, it should be a priority for elected officials.”

Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) predicts the Legislature will still be fiddling with the budget until it adjourns in September and vows: “I’ll continue to advocate for adequate funding for 36.” He asserts the budget now being negotiated won’t hold up because of chaos under Trump, who’s constantly threatening to withhold federal money due California.

Healthcare for immigrants

Another sticky issue is state-provided healthcare for immigrants living here illegally.

Newsom and the Democratic-controlled Legislature decided a few years ago to generously offer all low-income undocumented immigrants access to Medi-Cal, California’s version of federal Medicaid for the poor.

But unlike Medi-Cal for legal residents, the federal government doesn’t kick in money for undocumented people. The state foots the entire bill. And it didn’t set aside enough. Predictably, state costs ran several billion dollars over budget.

The Newsom administration claims that more adults enrolled in the program than expected. But, come on! When free healthcare is offered to poor people, you should expect a race to enroll.

To help balance the books, Newsom proposed $100 monthly premiums. The Legislature reduced that to $30. They both agreed to freeze enrollments for adults starting Jan. 1.

The Legislature also wants to freeze Medi-Cal enrollment for even more people who are non-citizens: those with what it considers “unsatisfactory immigration status.” What does that mean? Hopefully it’s being negotiated.

Delta tunnel

And there’s the matter of the governor’s proposed water tunnel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Newsom tried to squeeze the controversial issue into the budget process, although it had nothing to do with the budget. But as a budget trailer bill, it could avoid substantive public hearings in the Legislature.

The governor wants to “fast-track” construction of the $20-billion, 45-mile tunnel that would transmit more Northern California water to Southern California. Delta farmers, local residents and coastal salmon interests are adamantly opposed. Fast-track means making it simpler to obtain permits and seize property.

Legislative leaders told the governor absolutely “No”: come back later and run his proposal through the ordinary committee process. Don’t try to fast-track the Legislature.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: ‘A good day’: Detained U.S. citizen said agents bragged after arresting dozens at Home Depot
The visit: Vice President JD Vance rips Newsom, Bass and mocks Padilla during visit to Los Angeles
The L.A. Times Special: Welcome to the deportation resistance, Dodgers. What’s next?

Until next week,
George Skelton

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An unusual request from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about Cuban medical brigades that operate worldwide and provide much needed help has roiled countries in the Caribbean and the Americas.

In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, the commission asks members of the Organization of American States, OAS, for details including whether they have an agreement with Cuba for medical missions, whether those workers have labor and union rights and information about any labor complaints.

“This was an unprecedented move,” said Francesca Emanuele, senior international policy associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “It’s deeply troubling.”

Cuba has more than 22,000 doctors working in more than 50 countries, including in the Caribbean and the Americas, according to its government. A breakdown for the region was not available, but many impoverished nations in the Caribbean rely heavily on those medical professionals.

The commission, an independent body of the OAS, which is heavily funded by the U.S., said it plans to analyze the data collected as well as offer recommendations “given the persistence of reports of rights violations.”

A spokesperson for the commission declined comment, saying the letter is private.

The letter was sent after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions in late February for Cuban or foreign government officials accused of involvement in Cuba’s medical missions, which he called “forced labor.”

“The timing is really suspicious,” Emanuele said, noting that the information requested “falls squarely” within the member states’ sovereign decision-making. “The role of this organization should not be distorted.”

In June, the administration of U.S. President Trump slapped several unidentified officials from Central America with visa restrictions.

A deadline looms

Silence has prevailed since the human rights commission issued its May 24 letter giving OAS member states 30 days to respond.

“I’m awaiting a regional approach,” said Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

He said in a phone interview that he would raise the issue next week during a meeting of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States as chairman.

“There are no human rights issues involved here,” he said, noting that St. Vincent is party to several international and labor conventions. “They have not been breached and will not be breached.”

Gonsalves said Cuban doctors run the sole hemodialysis center in St. Vincent that provides free care to 64 patients at a rate of $5 million a year.

“Without the Cubans, that dialysis center will close,” he said.

When asked if he worried about potential visa restrictions, Gonsalves said he met earlier this year with Rubio and provided a lengthy letter that he declined to share detailing the work of Cuban medical professionals in St. Vincent.

“We didn’t scrimp on any of the details,” he said. “I didn’t walk away from that meeting thinking that there was any possibility or threat of sanctions.”

A divided region

Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Todd, told the Associated Press on Friday that the government plans to amend its payment and recruitment system involving Cuban medical professionals.

He said their main concern “is to make sure we are compliant with international labor laws.” Todd did not say whether the planned amendments are related to concerns over U.S. visa restrictions.

Late Thursday, Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said the government wants to ensure that “the conditions of work here don’t run afoul of the requirements set by the United States of America.”

Guyana depends heavily on the U.S. for support, especially given an ongoing and bitter border dispute with neighboring Venezuela.

Some Caribbean leaders have said they would risk losing a U.S. visa, noting that Cuban medical professionals provide much needed help in the region.

“If we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter… if the cost of it is the loss of my visa to the U.S., then so be it,” Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley told Parliament in March as legislators pounded a table in support.

No Cuban medical workers are currently in Barbados.

Echoing Mottley’s sentiment was Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley.

“I just came back from California, and if I never go back there again in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is known to its people and respected by all,” he said in March.

In April, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel criticized what he described as a campaign against the Caribbean country.

“There is no doubt that that desperate campaign to block Cuban cooperation has two clear objectives: to close off any avenue of income for the country, even in an activity as noble and necessary to other nations as healthcare services,” he said.

“The other reason is political and ideological: They want to sweep Cuba away as an example. And they resort to methods as immoral as threatening any foreign official involved in that activity,” he added.

Rubio has defended visa restrictions, saying they promote accountability.

Coto writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, and Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.

LUKA MODRIC is set to undergo a medical at AC Milan after the Club World Cup, according to reports.

The Croatian, 39, has already announced that he will leave Real Madrid following the conclusion of the revamped tournament in the US.

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June 4 (UPI) — The U.S. State Department has imposed visa restrictions on an unspecified number of Central American government officials accused of being involved in Cuba’s medical mission program.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the punitive measure in a statement Tuesday, describing those targeted with the visa restrictions as “officials responsible for Cuban medical mission programs that include elements of forced labor and the exploitation of Cuban workers.”

“These steps promote accountability for those who support and perpetuate these exploitative practices,” Rubio said. “The Cuban labor export program abuses the participants, enriches the corrupt Cuban regime and deprives everyday Cubans of essential medical care that they desperately need in their homeland.”

According to the State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report for Cuba, medical professionals comprise 75% of Cuba’s exported workforce, generating $4.9 billion of its total $7 billion in service exports in 2022.

The United States, citing doctors who have escaped from the program, accuses Cuba of human trafficking and worker exploitation, stating that those deployed to some 50 countries receive little or no pay, have their passports and medical credentials confiscated and have their rights restricted abroad, while also facing repercussions if they leave the program.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said the Cuban government imposes “draconian rules” on doctors deployed abroad.

The move comes after Rubio, in late February, announced that the State Department was expanding its visa restrictions policy targeting forced labor to enable the blacklisting of those linked to Cuba’s labor export programs.

Though Cuba has yet to respond to Tuesday’s move, it lashed out at the Trump administration following February’s announcement, with Havana’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the visa restrictions were “based on falsehoods and coercion.”

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., said on X Tuesday that she supports Rubio’s visa ban on those who benefit from Cuba’s international medical program.

“No nation should enrich a dictatorship by exploiting its own people,” she said.

“It’s time to end these slave missions and stand with the Cuban people.”

WASHINGTON — The family of a 4-year-old Bakersfield girl with a rare medical condition has been granted humanitarian protection from deportation, allowing her to continue receiving lifesaving treatment in the United States.

The plight of the girl, who The Times has identified by her initials, S.G.V., drew public outrage and galvanized dozens of lawmakers to advocate on her behalf. The girl and her parents, who are from Mexico, originally received temporary permission to enter the U.S. legally through Tijuana in 2023.

The Trump administration had rescinded the legal protections of S.G.V. and her parents, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. Her doctor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles said she could die within days of losing her medical care for short bowel syndrome, a condition that prevents her body from completely absorbing nutrients from food.

Last week, 38 congressional Democrats, including California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, condemned the termination of the family’s status and urged the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate it.

“Without action, S.G.V. will die,” the lawmakers wrote May 29 to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “We urge a prompt response from your Department and a swift decision to extend this family’s legal status in the U.S.” The lawmakers wrote that the family’s situation “clearly meets the need for humanitarian aid.”

In a letter Monday to the family and their attorney, acting field office director Carmen Paniagua of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote: “This is to advise you that effective June 2, 2025, you have been granted Humanitarian Parole for a period of one year.”

In April, the girl’s mother, Deysi Vargas, received notice from the federal government that their humanitarian protections and permission to work legally had been terminated. The notice told them to leave voluntarily or else “the federal government will find you.”

An online fundraiser for S.G.V.’s care amassed more than $40,000 as of Tuesday.

Deysi Vargas’ daughter was nearly 2½ when she took her first steps.

The girl was a year delayed because she had spent most of her short life in a hospital in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, tethered to feeding tubes 24 hours a day. She has short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that prevents her body from completely absorbing the nutrients of regular food.

Vargas and her husband were desperate to get their daughter, whom The Times is identifying by her initials, S.G.V., better medical care. In 2023, they received temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally through Tijuana.

Now in Bakersfield, the family received notice last month that their legal status had been terminated. The letter warned them: “It is in your best interest to avoid deportation and leave the United States of your own accord.”

But doing so would put S.G.V., now a bubbly 4-year-old, at immediate risk of death.

“This is a textbook example of medical need,” said the family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment.

S.G.V.’s medication is stored in a small refrigerator.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where the girl regularly receives treatment, declined to comment. But in a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Arsenault of CHLA wrote that he sees the girl every six weeks.

If there is an interruption in her daily nutrition system, called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), the doctor wrote, “this could be fatal within a matter of days.”

“As such, patients on home TPN are not allowed to leave the country because the infrastructure to provide TPN or provide immediate intervention if there is a problem with IV access depends on our program’s utilization of U.S.-based healthcare resources and does not transfer across borders,” Arsenault wrote.

Vargas, 28, is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca; her husband, 34, is from Colombia. They met in Cancun, where they were working. Just before S.G.V. was born, the couple moved to nearby Playa del Carmen so her husband could work as an Uber driver.

The girl was born a month premature and quickly taken to intensive care. After doctors discovered her condition, she underwent six surgeries to fix an intestinal blockage. But Vargas said the doctors cut out too much, and the girl was left with short bowels. She experienced repeated blood infections, including one that nearly killed her.

The girl’s weight fluctuated severely. One month, she would look emaciated, her tiny limbs and bulging stomach incongruous with the family’s relative access to resources. Another month, she was as round-cheeked as any other baby.

When S.G.V. was 7 months old, a doctor suggested that the family relocate to Mexico City, where pediatric care for short bowel syndrome was the best in the country. But although her condition initially improved, the blood infections continued.

Unable to work, Vargas spent all day, every day, at the hospital with her daughter. Some days, she said, nurses would mistakenly administer the wrong medication to S.G.V. Other days, Vargas would arrive to find that her daughter had thrown up on herself overnight and no one had cleaned her up.

As part of her daily routine, Deysi Vargas runs a saline solution through her daughter’s intravenous line.

Vargas tried to keep a watchful eye over her daughter. Even so, she said a nurse once mistakenly sped up S.G.V.’s nutrition system, causing her to quickly pee it out. The girl became dehydrated and her glucose levels skyrocketed before doctors whisked her to intensive care, where her condition stabilized.

S.G.V. as a baby, taken in Mexico before treatment for short bowel syndrome.

(Deysi Vargas)

Vargas had read about children similar to her daughter going on to have normal lives in other countries. In Mexico, her daughter was being kept alive — but at 2, her condition had not improved.

So when Vargas learned that the Biden administration had begun offering migrants appointments with border agents through a phone application called CBP One, she signed up. Those let in received two-year protection from deportation and work permits.

With the appointment set for July 31, 2023, Vargas and her family set out for Tijuana two days earlier. She carefully carried her daughter out of the hospital, her nutrition bags still connected intravenously.

Her husband told agents that he had once been kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico who extorted money and threatened to kill him. They also looked at the girl, whose vulnerable condition was obvious.

“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas said. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”

By that afternoon, the family had been whisked to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego.

S.G.V. quickly improved. Although she once was hooked up 24 hours a day to the feeding system that delivered nutrients directly into the bloodstream, doctors began weaning her off as her intestines got stronger.

The Trump administration has revoked the family’s humanitarian parole that they received in 2023 to treat the 4-year-old girl’s short bowel syndrome. Doctors say she could die within days without treatment.

A year later, doctors referred her to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the top-ranked gastroenterology programs in the country.

Both of her parents worked, holding down odd jobs, and by September 2024, the family had settled in Bakersfield and S.G.V. was discharged from the hospital.

For the first time, S.G.V. experienced the outside world. At Walmart, her eyes widened from the shopping cart and she and her mom strolled the aisles.

“It was incredible,” Vargas said. “I had waited so long for doctors to tell me, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is OK now. She can go home.’”

Now, the girl spends 14 hours each night hooked up to the intravenous feeding system. She wears a backpack to take it on the go.

Four times a day, for an hour, her mom administers a different type of nutrition that goes straight into her stomach through a gastric tube. When the girl goes to preschool, she takes a larger backpack containing the milky fluid, and the school nurse administers her noon feeding.

Before S.G.V. takes a shower, Vargas unplugs her IV tubes, flushes them with saline and tapes a plastic sheet over her chest to keep water from getting in and infecting the area.

On a recent morning, Vargas dressed the girl in pink leggings, a Hello Kitty T-shirt and black Puma sneakers. As they left hand-in-hand for preschool, S.G.V.’s curly black hair was still wet and the adult-size backpack dangled behind her knees as she walked.

S.G.V.’s care is covered through Medi-Cal. But life in the U.S. isn’t cheap.

Their modest living room contains little more than a hot plate on a folding table, a mini-fridge, a single chair and an IV bag stand. With no full kitchen, Vargas mostly makes sandwiches or soups. The fridge is filled with S.G.V.’s nutrition packs.

Vargas recently found steady work cleaning a restaurant. Finally, she thought, the family was achieving a sense of stability.

Then in April she received the notice from immigration authorities. This month, she received a notice terminating her employment authorization.

Vargas said she and her husband sometimes eat just once a day after paying rent and utilities, as well as for diapers and other necessities. Her husband is currently unemployed because of an injury, and she fears that losing her income could leave them homeless.

The thought of being forced by immigration agents to return to Mexico terrifies Vargas.

“I know the treatment they have there for her is not adequate, because we already lived it,” she said. “Those were bad times. Here she is living the most normal life possible.”

If not for her daughter’s medical condition, Vargas said, they probably would still be in Mexico. They want to stay only for as long as the girl needs treatment. Exactly how long that could be is unclear, but the couple are hopeful that their child’s condition will improve enough that she stops requiring supplemental nutrition.

Brown, their lawyer, submitted a petition for a continuation of their temporary humanitarian legal status based on S.G.V.’s medical condition. She believes the family’s legal status was prematurely terminated by mistake.

President Trump lambasted Biden over his broad expansion of programs allowing humanitarian entry, known as parole. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order to ensure that the discretionary authority be “exercised on only a case-by-case basis” for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.

Deysi Vargas and her daughter, S.G.V., walk about 15 minutes to the child’s preschool.

“This is the intended purpose — to help the most vulnerable who need attention here,” Brown said. “We can avoid having harmed the child and the family.”

Although Trump said on the campaign trail that he would target criminals for deportation, his administration quickly began revoking the legal status of immigrants who have no criminal history.

The Trump administration has stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. under various Biden-era programs. Thousands of people who similarly entered the country using the CBP One app received notices from the federal government around the same time Vargas did, ordering them to leave voluntarily or face criminal prosecution and other legal actions.

The same phone app that Vargas used to enter the country has since been turned into CBP Home, to help immigrants such as her self-deport. If not, it says, “the federal government will find you.”

Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun in Bakersfield contributed to this report.

SACRAMENTO — Latino legislators criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts to Medi-Cal Monday afternoon, saying the plan to freeze enrollment and charge premiums for those adult immigrants without documentation already enrolled was a betrayal of California’s promise to protect the vulnerable.

Legislative pushback for the May budget revision, released by Newsom last week, comes after the governor announced an additional $12-billion budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year.

State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) said the plan to charge adult undocumented immigrants $100 per month for Medi-Cal was a form of redlining, and Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) said she doubted the two-tiered system was constitutional.

“The governor is proposing a troubling precedent — raising prices on one group of Californians based solely on their immigration status. It is illegal for Kaiser to do this. It is illegal for United Healthcare to do this. It is illegal for any doctor, hospital or clinic to charge higher prices to undocumented customers,” Durazo said at a California Latino Legislative Caucus rally outside the state Capitol on Monday.

The influential Latino Legislative Caucus has staunchly opposed cuts to Medi-Cal, the state’s expanded version of the federal Medicaid program. The objections come despite California expecting decreased revenue in part due to President Trump’s tariff policies and increases in state spending, including the recent expansion of Medi-Cal coverage to cover all eligible Californians, including immigrants lacking documentation.

State Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City), chair of a budget subcommittee on health, said Newsom’s proposal scapegoats immigrants for California’s economic woes. Immigrants, she said, are essential to California’s robust economy, recently ranked as the fourth largest in the world.

“If you were to remove the name from this document — if you were to remove the state, and people would just read this off to you and you closed your eyes — you would think, ‘Oh, that’s a budget proposed by a Republican in, perhaps, Alabama,’” she said.

During his news conference on Wednesday, Newsom encouraged state lawmakers and specially members of the Latino caucus to offer alternatives to balance the state budget if they disagreed with his proposal.

“Good people have different ideas, and I look forward to their ideas,” Newsom said.

On Monday, members of the Latino caucus did not mention any specific measures they would take instead of cutting Medi-Cal access, but pledged to offer budget balancing proposals in the days and weeks to come.

Gaza’s Nasser Hospital is “suffering immensely” from a shortage of medical supplies after an Israeli attack hit a medical warehouse early Monday morning. The entire area of Khan Younis is now also under a forced displacement order by the Israeli military.

May 16 (UPI) — The Papua New Guinea National Department of Health announced early Friday that a polio outbreak has struck there.

The nation’s government said it is “stepping up its response after the poliovirus was detected in wastewater samples and in two healthy children in Lae, Morobe Province.”

The World Health Organization has reported that less than 50% of the country’s population have been immunized against the disease, which is caused virally via contact with an infected person’s feces or droplets that come with sneezes and coughs. Polio mostly affects kids under five years old and cannot be cured.

The two children who tested positive in Lae are said to be symptom-free, which is commonly the case. Some may develop flu-like symptoms, but the virus can also occasionally cause paralysis and become life-threatening if breathing muscles are impacted.

The BBC reports that Papua New Guinea’s WHO representative Sevil Huseynova said “We have to do something about it and we have to do it immediately,” and that “We have to make maximum effort to get 100% [vaccination] coverage.”

In a post to Facebook Friday, the Papua New Guinea government said its Health Minister Elias Kapavore has called the situation “serious but manageable,” and “We’ve dealt with this before and know what works.”

He also added that “Vaccination is safe and effective, and we’re acting quickly to keep children protected.”

The Papua New Guinea government also announced Friday that as of Wednesday its “planned response includes at least two rounds of nationwide vaccination. These vaccines are free, safe, and widely used around the world, and the health system is working to ensure they are available to all children under five, no matter where they live.”

The country also declared it will take “immediate steps include expanding disease monitoring to detect any further cases swiftly and effectively. Testing is being increased, and surveillance efforts are being strengthened across the country to monitor for any additional signs of the virus.”

Polio has broken out before in Papua New Guinea, with the most recent incident happening in June of 2018, after a reported 20 years of the nation being considered polio-free.

The Honesty Box star Rose Skehan has revealed that she was admitted to a medical clinic while travelling in Thailand after filming the show, with the star fainting at a restaurant

The Honesty Box runners up Rose Skehan and Tommy Biswell went off on their travels to Thailand after filming the E4 show – and have revealed that one particular day proved to be dramatic when Tommy was forced to carry Rose to a nearby clinic. The couple, who met on the dating show hosted by Vicky Pattison, have stayed together since the show’s finale and moved in together as they travel from place to place in the UK.

However, Rose revealed in a chat with The Mirror that she suddenly became ill one night during their trip to Thailand. “There was one time where I got really sick when we went to Thailand and I fainted at dinner,” she says.

“Tommy was carrying me like a baby through the streets of Thailand to this clinic and I was on an IV drip. We had the most random time ever.”

Tommy adds, “One minute she was singing having a fab time, next she was in a clinic on a drip. It was really quite mad that but Thailand was amazing time. We saw elephants, we rode horses, we saw monks.”

Rose continues, “We were walking up waterfalls, we really like broaden our horizons as well.”

The trip also made the couple even closer after Rose suffered a devastating loss back at home. “It brought us so much closer together because while were out there as well, my horse of 11 years, he passed away and Tommy really stepped up in caring for me and supporting me so we’ve got such a strong base coming back to England.”

Since leaving the show, Rose and Tommy have moved in together – revealing that they have been travelling the UK as a couple ever since. “We’re actually all over, so we jump round from cabin to cabin,” Tommy says. “We’re exploring the whole country. We’re finding nice little places that we’ve not been to in the UK.”

Rose adds, “It’s great because we both love historic houses and animals – we’re in our element going all over the countryside.”

The couple narrowly missed out on the show’s winnings as it was Chantelle and Jovan who emerged as champions of The Honesty Box. The winning pair recently revealed to the Mirror that they’re ready for marriage.

You can catch up on The Honesty Box on Channel 4.

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