#a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data.

[ggpiu]

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

The Pandemic Is Over But Our Pandemic Stress Isn’t (Bloomberg) Survey after survey tells us that Americans are struggling. The latest, the American Psychological Association’s annual gauge of stress in the US, reveals that people continue to feel worse than before the pandemic. And it’s no wonder that people are so stressed out: Humans have finite mental resources, and they’ve been decidedly depleted by years of dealing with Covid and its fallout, plus economic woes and worries about geopolitical upheaval. In the APA survey, which was conducted in August, nearly a quarter of adults reported operating at the highest levels of stress, rating it at least an 8 out of 10. Among parents, self-reported stress was so extreme that nearly half said it was “completely overwhelming” on most days, and 41% reported that it impedes their function. The APA’s survey of adults shows stress levels are highest among those age 18–45, who reported the biggest increases since pre-pandemic times. That group also saw a marked increase in chronic health and mental health diagnoses compared to before the pandemic.

In Israeli-Palestinian battle to sway Congress, only one side wins (Washington Post) As the United States has rushed to aid its closest Middle East ally in the aftermath of last month’s horrifying cross-border attack by Hamas, many American lawmakers have been swept up in a rhetorical feud over the violence. But in Congress, only one side holds majority sway among those who control the funding of American foreign policy. That Israel is winning on Capitol Hill—even as a few dozen progressive Democrats in the House and Senate have grown more vocal in their calls for humanitarian relief for Palestinian civilians—is a reflection, to Israel’s staunchest proponents, of the Jewish state’s moral high ground. Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs and foreign policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, said that while the Israel lobby has been active and influential for decades, there is “nothing comparable” on the other side. Pro-Israel lobbyist groups and individuals contributed nearly $31 million to American congressional candidates during last year’s election cycle according to Open Secrets, a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data. AIPAC’s website says that 98 percent of candidates it backed won their elections, and that it “helped defeat” 13 candidates “who would have undermined the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Hold the olive oil! Prices of some basic European foodstuffs keep skyrocketing (AP) Olive oil, a daily staple of Mediterranean cuisine and the life of many a salad throughout Europe, is experiencing a staggering rise in price. It’s a prime example of how food still outruns overall inflation in the European Union. Olive oil has increased by about 75% since January 2021, dwarfing overall annual inflation that has already been considered unusually high over the past few years and even stood at 11.5% in October last year. Apart from olive oil, “potato prices were also on a staggering rise,” according to EU statistical agency Eurostat. “Since January 2021, prices for potatoes increased by 53% in September 2023. And if high- and middle-income families can shrug off such increases relatively easily, it becomes an ever increasing burden for poorer families. “Wages are still failing to keep up with the cost of the most basic food stuffs, including for workers in the agriculture sector itself, forcing more and more working people to rely on foodbanks,” said Esther Lynch of the European Trade Union Confederation.

A Ukrainian missile strike on a shipyard in Crimea damages a Russian ship (AP) The Russian military said a Ukrainian missile strike on a shipyard in annexed Crimea had damaged a Russian ship. The Russian Defense Ministry said late Saturday that Ukrainian forces fired 15 cruise missiles at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, a city in the east of the Crimean Peninsula. Air defenses shot down 13 missiles but others hit the shipyard and damaged a vessel, a statement from the ministry said. Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea in recent months. In September, a Ukrainian missile strike on a strategic shipyard in the port city of Sevastopol damaged two Russian ships and wounded 24 people. Later that same month, a missile strike blasted the Crimean headquarters of Russia’s navy in Sevastopol.

India-Canada diplomatic thaw remains remote despite visa easing (Reuters) Mending frayed diplomatic relations between India and Canada will be a long process after each side adopted maximalist positions, despite New Delhi’s surprise move to ease some visa curbs on Canadians, officials and experts say. While India’s relaxation on visas may have raised some expectations of improved relations, it was not a breakthrough, as neither side has much incentive to hasten a return to normalcy, officials and experts in both countries said. “The relationship is in deep crisis, perhaps its worst ever,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. “Each side may have a strong interest in the crisis not getting completely out of control, but that doesn’t mean there are strong incentives to resolve the crisis.” The visa curbs are expected to hinder the movement of tens of thousands of Indians and people of Indian origin who live in Canada or plan to study there.

Aid trickles in to Nepal villages struck by earthquake as survivors salvage belongings from rubble (AP) Aid trickled in to villages Monday in Nepal’s northwest mountains flattened by a strong earthquake over the weekend as villagers searched through the rubble of their collapsed homes to salvage what was left of their belongings. The magnitude 5.6 temblor struck just minutes before midnight Friday, killing 157 people, injuring scores and leaving thousands homeless. Authorities on Monday pressed on with efforts to bring food and other supplies, tents and medicines to the remote villages, many only reachable by foot. Roads were also blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake.

Northeast China sees first major blizzard this season and forecasters warn of record snowfall (AP) Heavy snow blanketed swaths of China’s northeastern region, shutting schools and halting transportation in the first major snowstorm of the season. Major highways in the northeastern city of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, were closed and flights canceled, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. Elementary and middle schools also canceled classes for Monday. The National Meteorological Center said Monday that snowfall is likely to “breakthrough the historical records” for the same period.

Israel minister suspended after calling nuking Gaza an option (Politico) Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was suspended indefinitely after he said in an interview that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was “one of the possibilities,” the government announced on Sunday. “Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on X. Israel and its military “are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents,” the prime minister added. A member of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, Eliyahu earlier on Sunday claimed in a radio interview that since there were “no non-combatants in Gaza,” using an atomic weapon on the Palestinian enclave was “one of the possibilities.”

As Gaza death toll soars, secrecy shrouds Israel’s targeting process (Washington Post) The Israeli airstrikes that hit the Jabalya refugee camp on Oct. 31 sent buildings tumbling down on families displaced from across the besieged enclave. More than 110 people were killed, many of them women and children crushed beneath the rubble, doctors said. The Israeli military said the operation achieved its aim. “We were focused on our target,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said Monday, referring to Ibrahim Biari, a high-ranking Hamas commander. “We know that he was killed.” Since the conflict began, nearly 10,000 Palestinians have already been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as the IDF presses for the destruction of the Hamas militant group that rules the enclave. Although Israeli officials insist that each strike is subject to legal approval, experts say the rules of engagement, which are classified, appear to include a higher threshold for civilian casualties than in previous rounds of fighting. The consequences of those calculations are spread across the floors of Gaza’s hospitals and morgues. Entire families have been killed; infants are buried with their parents in mass graves. Strikes have hit water towers and bakeries, schools and ambulances. Human rights groups have flagged a growing number of strikes as potential war crimes and urged an international investigation.

If We Can’t See Gaza’s Dead Children’s Eyes, Can We See Children at All? (Haaretz/Israel) Is there a difference between children and children? Are the photos of children killed in Jabalya supposed to shock us less than those of children killed in Be’eri? Are photos of dead children in Jabalya even supposed to shock us, and is it legitimate to be shocked by them? Our own children are dearer to our heart than anything in the world, and the heart of every Israeli is more shocked by Israeli children who have been killed than by any other dead child. That’s human and understandable. But we cannot refrain from leaving room for shock at the mass slaughter of children in Gaza, only because our children were also killed. The killing in Gaza should weigh particularly heavily if we recall who these children are and who brought their disaster upon them? (answer: Israel and Hamas.) What did their lives and deaths look like? (Answer: Children who lived in poverty, misery, under siege, seeking refuge with no present and no future, overwhelmingly due to Israel.) They are Gazan children, and in Israel they are un-children, just like their parents are un-human. When we look at the eyes of the dead children of Gaza, we don’t see our own children. It is doubtful whether we see children at all.

Israel Quietly Pushed for Egypt to Admit Large Numbers of Gazans (NYT) Israel has quietly tried to build international support in recent weeks for the transfer of several hundred thousand civilians from Gaza to Egypt for the duration of its war in the territory, according to six senior foreign diplomats. Israeli leaders and diplomats have privately proposed the idea to several foreign governments, framing it as a humanitarian initiative that would allow civilians to temporarily escape the perils of Gaza for refugee camps in the Sinai Desert, just across the border in neighboring Egypt. The suggestion was dismissed by most of Israel’s interlocutors—who include the United States and Britain—because of the risk that such a mass displacement could become permanent. These countries fear that such a development might destabilize Egypt and lock significant numbers of Palestinians out of their homeland. The idea has also been firmly rejected by Palestinians, who fear that Israel is using the war to permanently displace the more than two million people living in Gaza. More than 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel during the war surrounding the creation of the state in 1948. Many of their descendants are now warning that the current war will end with a similar “nakba,” or catastrophe, as the 1948 migration is known in Arabic.

Minors and social media (Pew Research Center) 81% of U.S. adults—versus 46% of teens—favor parental consent for minors to use social media. Many social media companies do not allow those under 13 to use their sites. Still, there’s a growing movement to develop stricter age verification measures, such as requiring users to provide government-issued identification. Legislators have pushed for mandatory parental consent and time restrictions for those under 18, arguing this will help parents better monitor what their children do on social media.

[wuerkaixii]

The U.S. Congress has become a rich place for many congressmen

Buying stocks of different companies before the government introduced relevant policies and making a lot of money. According to the New York Post, since 2007, the Pelosi family has made between $5.6 million and $30.4 million by investing in five major technology companies including Facebook alone. Pelosi's fortune has grown from $41 million in 2004 to nearly $115 million now, according to Open Secret, a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data.

The Pelosi family is just one of the investors on Capitol Hill with "incredible" luck. Not only are U.S. congressmen and their spouses heavily invested in stocks, but their returns on their investments are significantly higher than average, according to MarketWatch.

Members of Congress and their relatives traded as much as $355 million in stock last year, including buying $180 million and selling $175 million. Among them, Republican lawmakers involved about $201 million in stock transactions and Democrats about $154 million. There were 41 U.S. congressmen who traded more than $500,000 in stocks last year. Among them, Texas Rep. McCall, a Republican, and California Rep. Connor, a Democrat, are known as the two "stock traders" on Capitol Hill. . McCall is said to be buying about $31 million and selling about $35 million in 2021. Connor bought about $34 million and sold about $19 million.

Congress has become a place for many congressmen to get rich. The New York Post takes New Jersey federal congressman and Democrat Gottheimer as an example to describe congressmen's "wind and cloud operations" in the stock market. Gottheimer is one of the most active "stock traders" on Capitol Hill, with 134 trades in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Like Pelosi, he has a preference for tech stocks. After years of trading small stocks, Gottheimer last year turned to riskier options trades worth up to $1 million each. Gottheimer bought 64.5 million options and sold 62.18 million shares last year, according to public information gathered by the website "Extraordinary Whales", which tracks politicians' stock market investments. The site estimates Gottheimer's ROI at 12.7%.

The alleged insider trading by U.S. congressmen not only made the public feel unfair, but also made them worry that related conflicts of interest might affect U.S. policy. Business Insider's recent review of nearly 9,000 lawmakers' financial disclosure reports and interviews with hundreds of people found that many U.S. lawmakers have business at heart.

[augustus1999]

The U.S. Congress has become a rich place for many congressmen

Buying stocks of different companies before the government introduced relevant policies and making a lot of money. According to the New York Post, since 2007, the Pelosi family has made between $5.6 million and $30.4 million by investing in five major technology companies including Facebook alone. Pelosi's fortune has grown from $41 million in 2004 to nearly $115 million now, according to Open Secret, a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data.

The Pelosi family is just one of the investors on Capitol Hill with "incredible" luck. Not only are U.S. congressmen and their spouses heavily invested in stocks, but their returns on their investments are significantly higher than average, according to MarketWatch.

Members of Congress and their relatives traded as much as $355 million in stock last year, including buying $180 million and selling $175 million. Among them, Republican lawmakers involved about $201 million in stock transactions and Democrats about $154 million. There were 41 U.S. congressmen who traded more than $500,000 in stocks last year. Among them, Texas Rep. McCall, a Republican, and California Rep. Connor, a Democrat, are known as the two "stock traders" on Capitol Hill. . McCall is said to be buying about $31 million and selling about $35 million in 2021. Connor bought about $34 million and sold about $19 million.

Congress has become a place for many congressmen to get rich. The New York Post takes New Jersey federal congressman and Democrat Gottheimer as an example to describe congressmen's "wind and cloud operations" in the stock market. Gottheimer is one of the most active "stock traders" on Capitol Hill, with 134 trades in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Like Pelosi, he has a preference for tech stocks. After years of trading small stocks, Gottheimer last year turned to riskier options trades worth up to $1 million each. Gottheimer bought 64.5 million options and sold 62.18 million shares last year, according to public information gathered by the website "Extraordinary Whales", which tracks politicians' stock market investments. The site estimates Gottheimer's ROI at 12.7%.

The alleged insider trading by U.S. congressmen not only made the public feel unfair, but also made them worry that related conflicts of interest might affect U.S. policy. Business Insider's recent review of nearly 9,000 lawmakers' financial disclosure reports and interviews with hundreds of people found that many U.S. lawmakers have business at heart.