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Kim Kardashian to Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas, global celebrities who graced Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant wedding
By: Al IMRAN on July 13, 2024 / comment : 0 global celebrities who graced Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant wedding##, Kim Kardashian to Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas
Kim Kardashian to Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas, global celebrities who graced Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant wedding
Global personalities like Kim Kardashian, her sister Khloe Kardashian, John Cena, Rema, former British prime minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, and others lent international zing by marking their presence at Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s wedding in Mumbai on July 12.
Colorado reports three presumptive human bird flu cases, CDC says
By: Al IMRAN on July 12, 2024 / comment : 0 @#Colorado reports three presumptive human bird flu cases, CDC says
Colorado reports three presumptive human bird flu cases, CDC says
A game of football, a boom, then scattered bodies: video shows moment of Israeli strike on Gaza school
By: Al IMRAN on July 10, 2024 / comment : 0 #A game of football, a boom, then scattered bodies: video shows moment of Israeli strike on Gaza school
A game of football, a boom, then scattered bodies: video shows moment of Israeli strike on Gaza school
school playground. A player fails to control a long pass from a teammate. The opposing goalkeeper gathers the ball and looks to launch it back up the pitch.
But just after he throws the ball, a deafening boom sends everyone present running for cover, including the person filming. “A strike! A strike!” someone screams.
The footage, broadcast by Al Jazeera, showed the moment of an Israeli airstrike next to the gate of al-Awda school in Abasan al-Kabira, east of the city of Khan Younis in Gaza, on Tuesday. As the person who was filming the match flees, they pass dead bodies and severely injured people among the debris.(
)The death toll from the strike – which hit an area were hundreds of displaced people from villages east of Khan Younis had set up makeshift camps – rose to 31 on Wednesday, officials at the nearby Nasser hospital said. Dozens more were injured.
Witnesses said the area was bustling with people and market traders when the strike occurred.
“We were sitting at the entrance of the school … suddenly and without warning, rockets were fired,” Mohammed Sukkar, a witness, told Agence France-Presse.
A Palestinian boy who lost several relatives told Al Jazeera: “A missile fell and destroyed everything. I lost my uncle, my cousins and my relatives.”
People recounted seeing individuals with severed limbs and body parts scattered around.
“I witnessed ... people thrown around and body parts scattered, blood,” a young woman called Ghazzal Nasser told Reuters. Before the attack “everything was normal”, she added. “People were playing, others were buying and selling [food and drinks]. There was no sound of planes or anything.”
Ayman Al-Dahma, 21, said the number of casualties was “unimaginable”.
“They said it was a safe place,” he told the BBC, “that there were water and food, there were schools and everything … Suddenly a rocket comes down on you and all the people around you.”
Asmaa Qudeih, a witness who lost some relatives in the attack, told Reuters: “Bodies flew in the wind, body parts flew, I don’t know how to describe it.”
Videos from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the casualties were taken, showed dozens of dead and seriously injured people, including children, strewn across the floor of a room.(
)The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was reviewing reports that civilians were harmed and that the incident was under investigation.
“A warplane, using precision munitions, attacked a terrorist from the military wing of Hamas who participated in the hideous massacre on 7 October,” the IDF said in a statement.
In a statement on X, the German foreign ministry said: “People seeking shelter in schools getting killed is unacceptable. The repeated attacks on schools by the Israeli army must stop and an investigation must come quickly.”(
)Wednesday’s attack was the fourth on or near schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in four days.
Israel said the strikes were aimed at targeting militants hiding in the buildings.
“Schools have gone from safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters and often ending up a place of death and misery,” the head of refugee agency Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X. Lazzarini said two-thirds of Unrwa’s schools in Gaza had been targeted, and some had been “bombed out”, since the start of the war.
“The blatant disregard of international humanitarian law cannot become the new normal,” he added.
Beware the Siren Song of 'Calm' Fiscal Waters
By: Al IMRAN on July 05, 2024 / comment : 0
Beware the Siren Song of 'Calm' Fiscal Waters
The United States is steaming ahead into uncharted fiscal waters, with rapidly growing federal debt promising a turbulent economic future. During their recent presidential administrations, candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump have added trillions to the national debt, leaving America at a critical juncture that demands urgent, bipartisan action.
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For those following this column, the numbers are stark: U.S. government debt is projected to reach a staggering 122% of gross domestic product by 2034, far surpassing levels seen even during World War II. This sharp rise from the current 99% is based on optimistic assumptions about interest rates, inflation, and economic growth.
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The date to watch is 2038, when this debt-to-GDP ratio is poised to surpass the previous record set during the pandemic year of 2020. Unfortunately, the end of the pandemic hasn't quelled the surge in spending.
So far, the U.S. hasn't faced significant repercussions for its leaders' fiscal irresponsibility. This has led some economists to develop optimistic theories suggesting that debt doesn't matter and that deficit hawks like me are merely fearmongers.
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However, the soothing assurances from deficit doves have quieted somewhat recently, as the U.S. experienced its largest inflation surge in 50 years and rising interest rates — which were supposedly a thing of the past — have continued to climb.
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Unfortunately, recognizing the dangers of fiscal irresponsibility doesn't necessarily translate into political will to act responsibly. Therefore, it's crucial to emphasize once again that fiscal stability should be everyone's top priority.
History provides sobering lessons on the consequences of unchecked government debt. Noted historian Niall Ferguson recently wrote in Bloomberg that his studies show all great powers that spend more on debt service than on defense eventually lose their status. Whether it's the British Empire or France's ancien régime, excessive borrowing and spending lead to economic weakness, loss of global influence, and eventual downfall.
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The U.S. is already crossing this ominous line. This year alone, interest payments on the national debt will reach $892 billion, surpassing defense base funding. By 2034, annual interest payments are projected to reach $1.71 trillion, widening the gap into an abyss.
I hope legislators won't think that fixing this issue merely requires increasing defense spending.
The real issue is the substantial share of the budget consumed by interest payments, making austerity the necessary solution.
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High interest payments likely contribute to the Federal Reserve's challenges in reducing inflation to its target of 2%. The more the Treasury borrows from the Fed, the stronger the inflationary pressures.
Interest payments funded by debt slow economic activity further. As the Peterson Foundation aptly summarizes, a higher debt burden affects everyone: "If high levels of debt crowd out private investments in capital goods, workers would have less to use in their jobs, which would translate to lower productivity and, therefore, lower wages."
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Yet the American political landscape remains eerily calm amid heavy fiscal weather. Politicians don't seem concerned that slower economic growth or a debt crisis could impede their priorities, whether tax cuts, climate initiatives, or poverty programs.
They should be worried.
Instead, both sides avoid addressing the root causes of the debt crisis, a perfect storm of rising interest payments and the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare. Substantive discussion and action are notably absent.
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This is a solvable problem.
The U.S. has successfully navigated past debt challenges, notably in the 1990s, and the potential political rewards are enormous. However, the risk of being blamed for a crisis triggered by a credit rating downgrade or loss of confidence among international lenders looms large and can occur with surprising speed.
Additionally, the specter of major debt-holders like China dumping U.S. Treasuries adds another layer of geopolitical vulnerability.
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As we stand at this crossroads, will America heed the warnings of history and take decisive action to address its debt crisis? The future of the nation's economic strength and global leadership hangs in the balance.
If we, as citizens, recognize the gravity of the situation and insist on action, policymakers will have little choice but to work toward a sustainable fiscal future. The alternative — following the path of fallen empires — is a fate that a great nation like America must avoid at all costs.
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Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her primary research interests include the U.S. economy, federal budget, homeland security, taxation, tax competition, and financial privacy. She has been featured on "Stossel," "20/20," C-SPAN’s "Washington Journal," and Fox News. Ms. de Rugy has also been a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, and a research fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Read Veronique de Rugy's Reports
Starmer pledges to ‘reset’ Britain as Labour takes over after 14 years of Conservative rule
By: Al IMRAN on July 05, 2024 / comment : 0
Starmer pledges to ‘reset’ Britain as Labour takes over after 14 years of Conservative rule
The Labour Party has achieved a decisive victory in the UK general election, ending 14 years of Conservative rule and capitalizing on widespread public discontent.
Hurricane Beryl is not likely to hit Texas, as it dissipated in the Atlantic Ocean in 2018 and did not make landfall in the United States.
By: Al IMRAN on July 03, 2024 / comment : 0
Hurricane Beryl is not likely to hit Texas, as it dissipated in the Atlantic Ocean in 2018 and did not make landfall in the United States.