(date: 2024-09-01 11:16:42)
Bidenadministration delays announcement on China tariffs
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-administration-delays-announcement-on-china-tariffs-/7767399.html
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-01, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
I am a couple of paragraphs into this Paul Graham post and I find myselfnodding constantly.
The worst guidance with most catastrophic consequences was always givenby the management mode people:
https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113063156264702711
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The networks should put Trump on time delay and when he says you canlegally murder babies in some states, that should be treated as if hesaid fck or sht. Put up a screen that explains why he was cutoff, then go to commercial.
https://mastodon.social/@bkize@hachyderm.io/113062650913634400
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Paul Graham wrote a very useful piece about "Founder Mode." As afounder myself, I think I can tell you why founders have a central roleto play as a company grows.
http://scripting.com/2024/09/01.html#a155212
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
It's totally okay that Bluesky and Mastodon don't interop. We canflatten it out, as earlier developers did with TCP.
https://www.threads.net/@thebrianpenny/post/C_XR5WWxEoj
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Scripting News: News on the web still sucks.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/29/153350.html
A brief trip to the past
date: 2024-09-01, from: Status-Q blog
I’ve just come back from bobbing about in a small boat on the crystalblue waters of the Greek bit of the Mediterranean – a marvellousexcerience! I’m sitting in the tender here because, as anyone who hastried it will confirm, it’s much easier to land a drone on a boat thatdoesn’t haveContinueReading
https://statusq.org/archives/2024/09/01/12156/
GeorgeClooney, Brad Pitt disappointed their new film skips cinemas
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
Venice, Italy —Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Brad Pittadmit they are disappointed their latest comedy “Wolfs” is not getting abroad cinema release and instead heading almost straight onto AppleTV.
“It is a bummer,” Clooney said on Sunday, adding that televisionstreamers, such as Apple AAPL.O, were nevertheless vital to the futureof filmmaking, presenting actors with opportunities and generatingbigger audiences for their work.
“Streaming, we need it, our industry needs this,” he said.
Written and directed by Jon Watts, “Wolfs” is an old-fashioned crimecaper with Clooney and Pitt playing lone-wolf professional fixers whoare forced to work together with comically unfortunate consequences.
Apple originally signaled it would place the film in a large numberof cinemas before the TV release, but instead opted to show it brieflyin a restricted number of U.S. movie theatres and then run it on itsglobal TV service.
“We’ll always be romantic about the theatrical experience. At thesame time, I love the existence of the streamers because we get to seemore story, we get to see more talent, it gets more eyes,” said Pitt.“It’s a delicate balance right now and it’ll right itself.”
Asked what it meant if two of the biggest names in the business couldnot get a broad cinema release, as they had requested, Clooney quipped:“Clearly we’re declining.”
Sixteen years after last appearing together in 2008’s Coen brothers’comedy “Burn After Reading,” Pitt and Clooney said they jumped at thechance to reunite when they read Watts’ script for “Wolfs.”
“I got to say, just as I get older, just working with the people thatI just really enjoy spending time with has really become important tome,” said Pitt, who turned 60 last year.
In a news conference full of light-hearted banter, Clooney, saidPitt, was fortunate still to be offered parts. “He’s 74 years-old andhe’s very lucky at this age to still be working.”
On a more serious note, he denied a New York Times story in Augustthat said both he and Pitt had been paid more than $35 million each toappear in the film.
“I’m only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry ifthat’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries. I thinkthat’s a terrible thing. It will make it impossible to make a film,” hesaid.
“Wolfs” is showing out of competition at the Venice Film Festival,which runs until Sept.7.
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-01, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
Some months ago, I did entertain the idea of “maybe I couldautomatically walk the UI tree from a Godot dialog and produce a SwiftUIone”.
It felt wrong, but I can now with confidence say, it would be sh*t.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113062902453095713
Heliography in darkness
date: 2024-09-01, from: OS News
Telegram doesn’t hold up to the promise of being private, nor secure.Theend-to-end encryptionis opt-in, only applies to one-on-oneconversations and uses a controversial ‘homebrewn’ encryption algorithm.The rest of this article outlines some of the fundamentally brokenaspects of Telegram. ↫ h3artbl33d Telegram is not a secure messenger,nor is it a platform you should want to be on. Chats are not encryptedby default, and are stored in plain text on Telegram’s server. Onlychats between two (not more!) people who also happen to both be onlineat that time can be “encrypted”. In addition, the quotation markshighlight another massive issue with Telegram: its “encryption” isnon-standard, home-grown, and countless security researchers have warnedagainst relying on it. Telegram’s issues go even further than this,though. The application also copies your contacts to its servers andkeeps them there, they’ve got a “People nearby” feature that shareslocation data, and so much more. The linked article does a great job oflisting the litany of problems Telegram has, backed up by sources andstudies, and these alone should convince anyone to not use Telegram foranything serious. And that’s even before we talk about Telegram’s utterdisinterest in stopping the highly illegal activities that openly takeplace on its platform, from selling drugs, down to far more shocking anddangerous activities like sharing revenge pron, CSAM, and more. Telegramhas a long history of not giving a single iota about shuttering groupsthat share and promote such material, leaving victims of such heinouscrimes out in the cold. Don’t use Telegram. A much better alternative isSignal, and hell, even WhatsApp, of all things, is a better choice.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140647/heliography-in-darkness/
Where did summer go?
date: 2024-09-01, from: Enlightenment Economics
Already September 1st, and a tang of autumn in the morning air. I hada two-week holiday with no laptop or emails, and lots of reading. Then atwo-week scramble to catch up with the accumulated email and work. So …Continuereading →
http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2024/09/where-did-summer-go/
Servogets tabbed browsing, Windows improvements, and more
date: 2024-09-01, from: OS News
If you’re reading this, you did a good job surviving another month,and that means we’ve got another monthly update from the Servo project,the Rust-based browser engine originally started by Mozilla. The majornew feature this month is tabbed browsing in the Servo example browser,as well as extensive improvements for Servo on Windows.Servo-the-browsernow has aredesigned toolbar andtabbed browsing! Thisincludes a slicknew tab page, taking advantage of a new API that letsServo embedders registercustom protocol handlers. ↫ Servo’s blog Servonow runs better on Windows, with keyboard navigation nowfixed,–outputto PNG also fixed, and fixes for some font- andGPU-related bugs, which were causing misaligned glyphs with incorrectcolors on servo.org and duckduckgo.com, and corrupted images onwikipedia.org. Of course, that’s not at all, as there’s also the usualmassive list of improved standards support, new APIs, improvements tosome of the developer tools (including massive improvements in Windowsbuild times), and a huge number of fixed bugs.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140645/servo-gets-tabbed-browsing-windows-improvements-and-more/
LEVERWEEKLY: Corporations Didn’t Save Their Receipts
date: 2024-09-01, from: The Lever News
A supermarket chain deletes evidence, fossil fuels score their ownjustice, and more from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-corporations-didnt-save-their-receipts-2/
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
There Are No Backsies on Dobbs.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/09/01/there-are-no-backsies-on-dobbs/
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Clash of the Tech Titans: Silicon Valley Fractures Over Harrisvs.Trump.
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Abortion is the clearest issue there is. If you think women shouldchoose you must vote for Harris.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/09/01/trump-and-gop-struggle-to-address-abortion-issues/
UShotel workers strike in Boston, Greenwich as contract negotiationsstall
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK —About 1,070 hotel workers in the U.S. cities of Boston andGreenwich are on strike after contract talks with hotel operatorsMarriott International MAR.O, Hilton Worldwide HLT.N and Hyatt HotelsH.N stalled, the Unite Here union said on Sunday.
The strikes in Boston and Greenwich will last three days, the unionsaid, adding that more hotel workers in different cities are expected towalk off the job across the U.S. throughout the Labor Day holidayweekend.
Unite Here, which represents workers in hotels, casinos and airportsacross the United States and Canada, said frustrated workers may strikein major destinations including San Francisco and Seattle as theystruggle to agree with hotel operators on wages and on reversingpandemic-era job cuts.
“Strikes have also been authorized and could begin at any time inBaltimore, Honolulu, Kauai, New Haven, Oakland, Providence, San Diego,San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle,” Unite Here said in astatement.
A total of 40,000 Unite Here hotel workers in more than 20 cities areworking under contracts that expire this year. About 15,000 of thoseworkers have authorized strikes in 12 markets from Boston toHonolulu.
Workers have been in negotiations for new four-year contracts sinceMay.
“We’re on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,”Unite Here President Gwen Mills said.
“We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit bycutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments toworkers,” Mills added.
Unite Here workers in 2023 won record contracts in Los Angelesfollowing rolling strikes and in Detroit after a 47-day strike.
In Las Vegas, casino operators MGM MGM.N, Caesars CZR.O and WynnWYNN.O resorts reached an agreement in November to avert a strike with40,000 hospitality workers days before a deadline that would havecrippled the Vegas Strip.
iGuluF1 could be the hoppy ending to your home-brew horror show
date: 2024-09-01, updated: 2024-09-01, from: The Register (UK I.T.News)
Good things come to those who wait – and have deep pockets
Review It’s no secret that this vulture is partial toan adult beverage or two. But brewing your own? That way lies madnessdue to the complexities involved. However, the iGulu F1 seeks to makehome-brew disasters a thing of the past thanks to automation andidiot-proof ingredients.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/01/igulu_f1_home_brewer/
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-09-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Founder Mode.
https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html
Pickleball picks awayat American tennis
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
New York —Does American tennis have a pickleball problem?
Even as the U.S. Open opened this week with more than a million fansexpected for the sport’s biggest showcase, the game’s leaders are beingforced to confront a devastating fact — the nation’s fastest-growingracket sport (or sport of any kind) is not tennis but pickleball, whichhas seen participation boom 223% in the past three years.
“Quite frankly, it’s obnoxious to hear that pickleball noise,” U.S.Tennis Association President Dr.Brian Hainline grumbled at a recentstate-of-the-game news conference, bemoaning the distinctive pock, pock,pock of pickleball points.
Pickleball, an easy-to-play mix of tennis and ping pong using paddlesand a wiffleball, has quickly soared from nearly nothing to 13.6 millionU.S. players in just a few years, leading tennis purists to fear a daywhen it could surpass tennis’ 23.8 million players. And most troublingis that pickleball’s rise has often come at the expense of thousands oftennis courts encroached upon or even replaced by smaller pickleballcourts.
“When you see an explosion of a sport and it starts potentiallyeroding into your sport, then, yes, you’re concerned,” Hainline said inan interview with The Associated Press. “That erosion has come in ourinfrastructure. … A lot of pickleball advocates just came in and said,‘We need these tennis courts.’ It was a great, organic grassrootsmovement but it was a little anti-tennis.”
Some tennis governing bodies in other countries have embracedpickleball and other racket sports under the more-the-merrier beliefthey could lead more players to the mothership of tennis. France’stennis federation even set up a few pickleball courts at this year’sFrench Open to give top players and fans a chance to try it out.
But the USTA has taken a decidedly different approach. Nowhere at theU.S. Open’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is there any suchdemonstration court, exhibition match or any other nod to pickleball orits possible crossover appeal.
In fact, the USTA is flipping the script on pickleball with anambitious launch of more than 400 pilot programs across the country tobroaden the reach of an easier-to-play, smaller-court version of tenniscalled “red ball tennis.” Backers say it’s the ideal way for people ofall ages to get into tennis and the best place to try it is (wait forit) on pickleball courts.
“You can begin tennis at any age,” USTA’s Hainline said. “We believethat when you do begin this great sport of tennis, it’s probably best tobegin it on a shorter court with a larger, low-compression red ball.What’s an ideal short court? A pickleball court.”
And instead of the plasticky plink of a pickleball against a flatpaddle, Hainline said, striking a fuzzy red tennis ball with a stringedracket allows for a greater variety of strokes and “just a beautifulsound.” Players can either stick with red ball tennis or advance througha progression of bouncier balls to full-court tennis.
“Not to put it down,” Hainline said of pickleball, “but compared totennis … seriously?”
So what does the head of the nation’s pickleball governing body haveto say about such comments and big tennis’ plans to plant the seeds ofits growth, at least in part, on pickleball courts?
“I don’t like it but there is so much going on with pickleball, somany good things, I’m going to stick to what I can control, harnessingthe growth and supporting this game,” said Pickleball USA CEO MikeNealy.
Among the positive signs, Nealy said, is the continuing constructionof new pickleball courts across the country, raising the total to morethan 50,000. There’s also growing investment in the game at clubs builtin former big-box retail stores, pro leagues with such backers as TomBrady, LeBron James and Drake, and the emergence of “dink-and-drink”establishments that tap into the social aspect of the game by allowingfriends to enjoy pickleball, beer, wine and food under the sameroof.
“I don’t think it needs to be one or the other or a competition,”Nealy said of pickleball and tennis. “You’re certainly going to have theinherent frictions in communities when tennis people don’t feel thatthey’re getting what they want. … They’re different games but I thinkthey are complimentary. There’s plenty of room for both sports to bevery successful.”
Top-ranked American tennis player Taylor Fritz agreed. “There aresome people in the tennis world that are just absolute pickleballhaters, and that’s fine. But for me, I don’t really have an issue withpickleball. I like playing sometimes. … I don’t see any reason why bothof them can’t exist.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/pickleball-picks-away-at-american-tennis/7763499.html
Newbornrattlesnakes at Colorado ‘mega den’ make their live debut
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
CHEYENNE, Wyoming —A “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes inColorado is getting even bigger now that late summer is here and babiesare being born.
Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggyhillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic — and oftenmisunderstood — reptiles. They’re observing as the youngsters, calledpups, slither over and between adult females on lichen-encrustedrocks.
The public can watch too on the Project RattleCam website and helpwith important work including how to tell the snakes apart. Sinceresearchers put their remote camera online in May, several snakes havebecome known in a chat room and to scientists by names including“Woodstock,” “Thea” and “Agent 008.”
The live feed, which draws as many as 500 people at a time online, onThursday showed a tangle of baby snakes with tiny nubs for rattles. Theyhave a lot of growing to do: A rattlesnake adds a rattle segment eachtime it sheds its skin a couple times a year, on average.
The project is a collaboration between California Polytechnic StateUniversity in San Luis Obispo, snake removal company Central Coast SnakeServices and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
By involving the public, the scientists hope to dispel the idea thatrattlesnakes are usually fierce and dangerous. In fact, experts say theyrarely bite unless threatened or provoked and often are just theopposite.
Rattlesnakes are not only among the few reptiles that care for theiryoung. They even care for the young of others. The adults protect andlend body heat to pups from birth until they enter hibernation inmid-autumn, said Max Roberts, a CalPoly graduate student researcher.
“We regularly see what we like to call ‘babysitting,’ pregnantfemales that we can visibly see have not given birth, yet are kind ofguarding the newborn snakes,” Roberts said Wednesday.
As many as 2,000 rattlesnakes spend the winter at the location onprivate land, which the researchers are keeping secret to discouragetrespassers. Once the weather warms, only pregnant females remain whilethe others disperse to nearby territory.
This year, the scientists keeping watch over the Colorado site haveobserved the rattlesnakes coil up and catch water to drink from the cupsformed by their bodies. They’ve also seen how the snakes react to birdsswooping in to try to grab a scaly meal.
The highlight of summer is in late August and early September whenthe rattlesnakes give birth over a roughly two-week period.
“As soon as they’re born, they know how to move into the sun or intothe shade to regulate their body temperature,” Roberts said.
There are 36 species of rattlesnakes, most of which inhabit the U.S.They range across nearly all states and are especially common in theSouthwest. Those being studied now are prairie rattlesnakes, which canbe found in much of the central and western U.S. and into Canada andMexico.
Like other pit viper species but unlike most snakes, rattlesnakesdon’t lay eggs. Instead, they give birth to live young. Eight is anaverage-size brood, with the number depending on the snake’s size,according to Roberts.
Roberts is studying how temperature changes and ultraviolet sunlightaffect snake behavior. Another graduate student, Owen Bachhuber, isstudying the family and social relationships between rattlesnakes.
The researchers watch the live feed all day.
“We are interested in studying the natural behavior of rattlesnakes,free from human disturbance. What do rattlesnakes actually do when we’renot there?” Roberts said.
Now that the Rocky Mountain summer is cooling, some males have beenreturning. By November, the camera running on solar and battery powerwill be turned off until next spring, when the snakes will re-emergefrom their “mega den.”
Notes on font licensing
date: 2024-09-01, updated: 2024-09-01, from: Robin Rendle Essays
https://robinrendle.com/notes/notes-on-font-licensing/
UStransfers ‘some aircraft’ used by former Afghan army to Uzbekistan
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
washington —The United States has handed over to the Uzbekgovernment possession of aircraft that former Afghan air force personnelflew to Uzbekistan after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA on Thursdaythat the ownership of “some aircraft” was transferred to Uzbekistan aspart of the Department of Defense’s Excess Defense Articles program.
“This transfer was agreed in the context of our strong bilateralcooperation on counterterrorism, counternarcotics and enhanced bordersecurity,” the spokesperson told VOA in an email, without saying howmany aircraft were transferred to the Uzbek government.
The fate of aircraft that were flown to Uzbekistan after the fall ofAfghanistan into the hands of the Taliban has been a bone of contentionbetween the Taliban and Uzbekistan for three years.
Afghan air force personnel flew about 46 aircraft — 22 militaryplanes and 24 helicopters — to Uzbekistan as the government inAfghanistan collapsed in the face of the Taliban’s advances in August2021.
The Taliban, who consider the aircraft to be Afghan property,objected to the handover of the aircraft to Uzbekistan.
“The Ministry of Defense [of the Taliban] clearly declares that theUnited States has no right to donate or confiscate the property of theAfghan people,” the spokesperson of the Taliban’s Ministry of Defensesaid in an audio message sent to media this week.
The Taliban spokesperson also called on Uzbekistan to make a“reasonable decision” to return the aircraft to the Taliban.
Local media in Uzbekistan reported last week that the U.S. ambassadorsaid the aircraft had already been transferred.
Tashkent has not commented yet on the transfer. However, Uzbekauthorities previously said that the aircraft belonged to the UnitedStates because the U.S. government paid for them and that it would notreturn the military equipment to the Taliban.
Tashkent-Taliban relations
Alisher Hamidov, an expert on Central Asia, told VOA that thetransfer of aircraft to Uzbekistan may complicate the relations betweenTashkent and the Taliban.
“The situation with the planes may now endanger Uzbekistan’sdiplomatic relations,” he said, adding that Tashkent has been playingmediator between Kabul and other countries over the past threeyears.
“The main goal was to bring Afghanistan [Taliban] to theinternational arena, restore relations and, of course, strengthenUzbekistan’s economy and foreign policy,” Hamidov added.
Uzbekistan has cultivated close relations with the Taliban, though itdoes not officially recognize the Taliban’s government inAfghanistan.
On Thursday, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, Abdul GhaniBaradar, attended the inauguration ceremony of the Termez InternationalTrade Center in Uzbekistan’s border town of Termez.
On August 17, the prime minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Aripov,visited Kabul and signed 35 trade and investment agreements valued at$2.5 billion.
Malik Mansur of VOA’s Uzbek Service contributed to this report, whichoriginated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
Netanyahuvows to ‘settle the score’ with Hamas after bodies of six hostages arefound
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
JERUSALEM —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday tointensify the fight with Hamas after the Israeli military recovered thebodies of six hostages, all of whom were apparently shot to death by themilitants just as troops were zeroing in on their location in Gaza.
“Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement” for a Gazacease-fire, Netanyahu said in a statement, telling Hamas leaders that“we will hunt you down, we will catch you and we will settle thescore.”
A military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, told reportersin a briefing, “According to our initial estimation, they were brutallymurdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them.” Theywere found in a tunnel in the southern city of Rafah.
Netanyahu also accused Hamas of carrying out a shooting attackearlier on Sunday that killed three police officers near the city ofHebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hamas has not claimedresponsibility for the attack but called it a “heroic operation by theresistance.”
Netanyahu said, “We are fighting on all fronts against a cruel enemywho wants to murder us all. The fact that Hamas continues to commitatrocities such as those it committed on October 7 obliges us to doeverything we can to ensure that it can no longer do so.”
The Israeli military said the West Bank attackers fired at a vehicleat the checkpoint near Hebron. “Security forces have begun to search forthe terrorists,” it said in a statement.
An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, told CNN’s“State of the Union” show that Israeli forces are continuing to searchtunnels near where the bodies of the hostages were found, only akilometer from where a living hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member ofthe Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued last week.
Oma Neutra, the mother of another hostage, Omer Neutra-Oma, said onCNN, “It’s time for the leaders to get this done,” to reach a cease-fireto halt nearly 11 months of fighting in Gaza precipitated by the October7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the captureof about 250 hostages.
“Enough is enough,” she said.
The Israeli counteroffensive has killed nearly 41,000 Palestinians inGaza, most of them women and children, according to Gaza healthofficials, while the Israeli military says the death toll includesseveral thousand Hamas combatants.
Israel says it believes 101 Israeli and foreign hostages remain inGaza, but about one-third of them is believed to be dead, while the fateof the others is not known.
Senior Hamas officials said that Israel, in its refusal to sign acease-fire agreement, was to blame for the newest deaths.
“Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of Israeli prisoners,”senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The Israelis shouldchoose between Netanyahu and the deal.”
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to thewar, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of dozens ofPalestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants, jailed byIsrael.
The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibilityand explain what was holding up an agreement.
“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. Thedelay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of manyother hostages,” it said.
Families of the hostages called for a nationwide Israeli generalstrike to try to increase pressure on Netanyahu to reach acease-fire.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also called for a “generalstrike.”
“They were alive, but Netanyahu and his cabinet of death decided notto save them,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “There are still hostagesalive. We can still make a deal.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government to reverse adecision last Thursday to keep Israeli forces in the PhiladelphiCorridor along the border with Egypt, a key point of contention innegotiations for a Gaza cease-fire.
“The cabinet must gather immediately and reverse the decision made onThursday,” Gallant said in a statement. “We must bring back the hostagesthat are still being held by Hamas.” Gallant and Netanyahu got into ashouting match over the corridor issue, but other security officialssided with Netanyahu.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of thehostages, said the six bodies found in the Gaza tunnel includedIsraeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Biden said he was “devastated andoutraged.”
“Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep workingaround the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaininghostages,” he said in a statement.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was captured at a music festival near the Gazaborder and appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
Earlier, speaking to reporters at his Rehoboth Beach, Delawarevacation retreat, Biden said he was “still optimistic” about reaching acease-fire deal to stop the conflict, adding, “People are continuing tomeet.”
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Reutersand Agence France-Presse.
Familyconfirms death of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
JERUSALEM —The family of Israeli-American hostage HershGoldberg-Polin announced the young man’s death early Sunday, ending arelentless campaign by his parents to rescue him that included meetingswith world leaders and an address to the Democratic convention lastmonth.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was seized by militants at a music festival insouthern Israel on October 7. The native of Berkeley, California, lostpart of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, aHamas-issued video showed him, his left hand missing and clearlyspeaking under duress, sparking new protests in Israel urging thegovernment to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
Israel’s announcement is bound to bring urgent new calls for PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring home remaininghostages. The Israeli leader has taken a tough line in negotiations andrepeatedly said that military pressure is needed to bring home thehostages. According to Israeli media, he has feuded with top securityofficials who have said a deal should be reached urgently.
President Joe Biden, who had met with the parents, said he was“devastated and outraged.”
“It is as tragic as it is reprehensible,” he said. “Make no mistake,Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working aroundthe clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaininghostages.”
The family issued a statement early Sunday, hours after the Israeliarmy said it had located bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated toannounce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said.“The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks forprivacy at this time.”
There was no immediate comment from the army, details on the exactcirc*mstances of his death or identities of other bodies recovered.
Asked about the case earlier on Saturday, Biden said bodies werestill being identified and that families were being notified. But hecalled for an end to the war and said cease-fire efforts wereprogressing.
“I think we’re on (the) verge of having an agreement,” he said as heleft church in Delaware. “It’s just time to end. It’s time to finish*t.”
Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, becameperhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the internationalstage. They met with Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressed theUnited Nations, urging the release of all hostages.
On August 21, his parents addressed a hushed hall at the DemocraticNational Convention — after sustained applause and chants of “bring himhome.”
“This is a political convention. But needing our only son — and allof the cherished hostages — home is not a political issue. It is ahumanitarian issue,” said his father, Jon Polin. His mother, Rachel, whobowed her head during the ovation and touched her chest, said “Hersh, ifyou can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive.”
Both wore stickers with the number 320, representing the number ofdays their son had been held. It had long become part of a morningritual — tear a new piece of tape, write down another day.
“I find it so remarkable how nauseating it is every single time,’’Rachel Goldberg-Polin told The Associated Press in January, ahead of the100-day mark.”And it’s good. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’twant anybody to get used to the fact that these people aremissing.’’
She asked other people around the world to take up the ritual, too,not only for her son, who moved to Israel with his family when he was 7,but for the other hostages and their families.
She and her husband sought to keep their son and the others held frombeing reduced to numbers, describing Hersh as a music and soccer loverand traveler with plans to attend university since his military servicehad ended. At events she often addressed her son directly in the hope hecould hear her, urging him to live another day.
Some 250 hostages were taken on October 7. Before the military’sannouncement of the latest discovery of bodies, Israel said it believed108 hostages were still held in Gaza and about one-third of them weredead. In late August, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of sixhostages in southern Gaza.
Eight hostages have been rescued by Israeli forces, the most recentfound on Tuesday. Most of the rest were freed during a weeklongcease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestiniansimprisoned by Israel.
Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores ofPalestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeliairstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killedthree Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-01, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
My teen is not taking well that I am a few trends ahead of her onTikTok.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113060054572855375
VOA ImmigrationWeekly Recap, August 25-31
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/7766820.html
Catholicdiocese sues US over foreign-born priests’ expiring visas
date: 2024-09-01, from: VOA News USA
Full Circle Weekly News 381
date: 2024-09-01, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad,@zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-381/
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-31, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
OMG, I think I need to use SwiftUI materials for my toolbar backgrounds!
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113059327243024197
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-31, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
Godot on iPad, my summer wrap-up:
https://blog.la-terminal.net/godot-on-ipad-summer-update/
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113059249071131750
MiniDisc Wiki
date: 2024-08-31, from: Tilde.news
https://www.minidisc.wiki/start
Mississippi buscrash kills 7, injures dozens
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
BOVINA, Mississippi —Seven people were killed and dozens wereinjured in Mississippi after a commercial bus overturned on Interstate20 Saturday morning, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
Six passengers were pronounced dead at the scene and another died ata hospital, according to a news release. The bus was traveling west whenit left the highway near Bovina in Warren County and flipped over. Noother vehicle was involved.
The crash was caused by tire failure, the National TransportationSafety Board said on the social media platform known as X. The bus wasoperated by Autobuses Regiomontanos based in Laredo, Texas. A woman whoanswered the phone at the company said it was aware of the crash, butshe didn’t answer questions or provide her name.
The transit company says it has 20 years of experience providingcross-border trips between 100 destinations in Mexico and the UnitedStates. Its website promotes “a modern fleet of buses that receive dailymaintenance,” and offers “trips with a special price for workers.”
The dead included a 6-year-old boy and his 16-year-old sister,according to Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey. They were identified bytheir mother. Authorities were working to identify the other victims, hesaid.
Thirty-seven passengers were taken to hospitals in Vicksburg andJackson. The department is continuing its investigation and hasn’treleased the names of the deceased. No other information was immediatelyprovided.
https://www.voanews.com/a/mississippi-bus-crash-kills-7-injures-dozens/7766782.html
Here’s22 examples of Google employees trying to avoid creating evidence forcourt
date: 2024-08-31, from: OS News
In its antitrust case against Google, the Federal Government filed alist of chats it had obtained that show Google employees explicitlyasking each other to turn off a chat history feature to discusssensitive subjects, showing repeatedly that Google workers understoodthey should try to avoid creating a paper trail of some of theiractivities. The filing came following a hearing in which judge LeonieBrinkemaripped Google for “destroyed” evidencewhile considering afiling from the Department of Justice asking the court to find “adverseinterference” against Google, which would allow the court to assume itpurposefully destroyed evidence. Previous filings, including in theEpicGames v Googlelawsuit and this current antitrust case, have also shownGoogle employeespurposefully turning history off. ↫ Seamus Hughes Thefact that corporations break the law, and lie, cheat, and scam their wayto the top is not something particularly shocking, nor will it surpriseanyone. I can barely even get angry about it anymore – birds gotta eat,fish gotta swim, corpos gotta break the law, that sort of thing. It’sjust an inevitability of reality, a law of nature. You know it, I knowit, the whole world knows it. No, what really upsets me is just howeasily they get away with it, and even if they do get punished, anyfines or other forms of punishment are so utterly disproportionatelymild compared to the crimes committed. It’s incredibly rare for anyoneresponsible for corporate crime to ever face any serious punishment, letalone jail time, and even in the rare cases where they do, they usuallyhave some stock options or whatever left over from their employmentcontract that will ensure a lavishly wealthy lifestyle. Fines leviedagainst corporations as a whole are usually so low they’re just a minorcost of doing business, to the point where one has to wonder why they’reeven being levied at all. Compare this to us normal folks, and thedifferences couldn’t be more stark. Whenever we’re accidentally late onsome small bill, we get fined automatically, with very little recourse.We get a speeding ticket automatically in the mail because we drove 5km/h over the speed limit. Our tax agencies are stupidly effective andefficient at screwing you over for that small side hustle selling crapon eBay. And rarely do we have any effective, efficient recourse. Andthese things can quickly spiral out of control when you’re alreadyliving paycheck to paycheck – being poor is really, really expensive.And let’s not even get into how much worse any of this is if you’re partof a minority, like being black in the US, or of North-African descentin Europe. In this case, the illegal activities of Google and itsexecuties and employees is on such clear display, and yet, few, if any,will suffer any consequences for them. If you ever wonder why so manyregular people flock to political extremes, it’s exactly this kind ofdeep unfairness and inequality that lies at its roots. It’s dispiriting,demoralising, and disheartening, and primes the pumps fordisenfranchisem*nt with society, and thus the search for alternatives,upon which extremists pray. We either stop our continual slide intocorporatism, or our societies will fall.
Borderarrests expected to rise in August; 5-month drop might have ended
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
san diego, california —Arrests for illegal border crossings fromMexico during August are expected to rise slightly from July, officialssaid, likely ending five straight months of declines.
Authorities made about 54,000 arrests through Thursday, which, at thecurrent rate, would bring the August total to about 58,000 when themonth ends Saturday, according to two U.S. Customs and Border Protectionofficials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discussinformation that has not been publicly released.
The tally suggests that arrests could be bottoming out after beinghalved from a record 250,000 in December, a decline that U.S. officialslargely attributed to Mexican authorities increasing enforcement withintheir borders. Arrests were more than halved again after DemocraticPresident Joe Biden invoked authority to temporarily suspend asylumprocessing in June. Arrests plunged to 56,408 in July, a 46-month lowthat changed little in August.
Asked about the latest numbers, the Homeland Security Departmentreleased a statement by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on Congressto support failed legislation that would have suspended asylumprocessing when crossings reached certain thresholds, reshaped howasylum claims are decided to relieve bottlenecked immigration courts andadded Border Patrol agents, among other things.
Republicans including presidential nominee Donald Trump opposed thebill, calling it insufficient.
“Thanks to action taken by the Biden-Harris Administration, the hardwork of our DHS personnel and our partnerships with other countries inthe region and around the world, we continue to see the lowest number ofencounters at our Southwest border since September 2020,” Mayorkas saidSaturday.
The steep drop from last year’s highs is welcome news for the WhiteHouse and the Democrats’ White House nominee, Vice President KamalaHarris, despite criticism from many immigration advocates that asylumrestrictions go too far and from those favoring more enforcement who sayBiden’s new and expanded legal paths to entry are far too generous.
More than 765,000 people entered the United States legally throughthe end of July using an online appointment app called CBP One and anadditional 520,000 from four nationalities were allowed through airportswith financial sponsors. The airport-based offer to people from Cuba,Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — all nationalities that are difficult todeport — was briefly suspended in July to address concerns about fraudby U.S. financial sponsors.
San Diego, California, again had the most arrests among the BorderPatrol’s nine sectors on the Mexican border in August, followed by ElPaso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, though the three busiest corridorswere close, the officials said. Arrests of Colombians and Ecuadoreansfell, which officials attributed to deportation flights to those SouthAmerican countries. Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras were the top threenationalities.
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-08-31, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Nuns in rural Kansas vex big companies with their investmentactivism.
Firefoxadds automatic picture-in-picture so you can stream and surf moreeasily
date: 2024-08-31, from: Liliputing
Mozilla has added a new toggle to Firefox that makes activatingpicture-in-picture video streaming a little bit easier. Firefox hasoffered picture-in-picture functionality for five years. If you wantedto keep a video going in the foreground while switching over to anothertab, however, you had to do it manually. Turn the new setting on […]
The postFirefoxadds automatic picture-in-picture so you can stream and surf moreeasily appeared first onLiliputing.
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-31, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
Today in Boston we celebrate a local holiday known as “AllstonChristmas” all across town - it is a true miracle.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113058039651500017
Checkyour IP cameras: There’s a new Mirai botnet on the rise
date: 2024-08-31, updated: 2024-08-31, from: The Register (UK I.T.News)
Also, US offering $2.5M for Belarusian hacker, Backpage kingpins jailed,additional MOVEit victims, and more
in brief A series of IP cameras still used all overthe world, despite being well past their end of life, have beenexploited to create a new Mirai botnet.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/31/ip_cameras_mirai_botnet/
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-08-31, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Kamala Harris has been dealing with trolls almost since there havebeen trolls.
https://www.threads.net/@davew/post/C_V0pbwpOcu
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-08-31, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump Won’t Commit to Vetoing Federal Abortion Ban.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/08/31/trump-wont-commit-to-vetoing-federal-abortion-ban/
@Dave Winer’slinkblog (date: 2024-08-31, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The press took its best shot at Kamala Harris, and it was a big puffof smoke, she just cruised right through it.
https://www.threads.net/@davew/post/C_VzCo_JSN5
Plus Post:SoftLogic Solutions’ Software Carousel
date: 2024-08-31, from: Computer ads from the Past
Get the best of Windows and OS/2 without learning all this.
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/plus-post-softlogic-solutions-software
Harriscalls on Trump to debate with mics ‘on the whole time’
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON —Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee inthe November 5 U.S. presidential election, on Saturday called on herRepublican rival, Donald Trump, to debate her with their microphonesswitched on throughout the event.
Harris and the former president have agreed to a debate, hosted byABC News, on September 10.
“Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won’t allow him todebate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn’t have confidencein him, the American people definitely can’t,” Harris said in a post onsocial media platform X.
“We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in atransparent way with the microphones on the whole time.”
Trump has said that he preferred to have his microphone kept on andthat he did not like it muted during the last debate againstthen-contender President Joe Biden.
So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates, catchingoff-hand comments that sometimes were not meant for the public. Mutedmicrophones also prevent the debaters from interrupting theiropponent.
A representative for ABC did not immediately respond to a request forcomment.
The debate would be the first time Harris and Trump face off sinceBiden dropped out of the presidential race following a poor performanceat a CNN debate in June that raised doubts about his mental acuity.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and Republican vicepresidential nominee JD Vance have agreed to an October 1 debate on CBSNews.
https://www.voanews.com/a/harris-calls-on-trump-to-debate-with-mics-on-the-whole-time-/7766615.html
Here’s22 Examples of Google Employees Trying to Avoid Creating Evidence inAntitrust Case
date: 2024-08-31, from: 404 Media Group
“pls turn off history”
AMCOG’s TonyBartram talks to WROCC – 4th September
date: 2024-08-31, from: RiscOS Story
Tony Bartram has around twenty titles in his AMCOG Games backcatalogue, and is currently working on two more titles, both of whichfeature something new or novel for our platform, and he will be talkingat the next Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club (WROCC) meeting, this comingWednesday. The first of these is a 3D space game, which will be comingat you at the RISC OS London Show later this year – and when I say‘coming at you’ I mean that in a slightly more literal way…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/amcog-wrocc-4th-september/
Harris’record in California praised, ridiculed, in US presidentialcampaign
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris is from one of America’smost politically liberal states — California. Her work as a localprosecutor, the state’s attorney general and U.S. senator is central toHarris’ presidential campaign. Her opponent, Donald Trump, says thatHarris’ record in California shows she is too liberal for the rest ofAmerica. From Los Angeles, Genia Dulot tells us what Californians aresaying.
@Miguel deIcaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-31, from: Miguel de IcazaMastondon feed)
For me, the question is how can I integrate this business guidance intoGodot for iPad?
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113057096315033982
TheFinal Demonstration of the Xerox ‘Star’ computer (1998)
date: 2024-08-31, from: Tilde.news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OwG_rQ_Hqw
EInk faces growing competition in the “paper-like” display space
date: 2024-08-31, from: Liliputing
For the past few decades, E Ink has dominated the market for thepaper-like displays found in eBook readers and other devices. Thescreens are high-contrast, easy to view indoors or outdoors, don’trequire a backlight, don’t reflect glare, and consume very little power.But E Ink displays also have slow screen refresh rates, limited […]
The postEInk faces growing competition in the “paper-like” display spaceappeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/e-ink-faces-growing-competition-in-the-paper-like-display-space/
YOULOVE TO SEE IT: National Parks Score A Monumental Gift
date: 2024-08-31, from: The Lever News
Plus, sustainable housing is going up, diabetes patients gethigh-tech help, and abortion rights can’t wait.
https://www.levernews.com/you-love-to-see-it-national-parks-score-a-monumental-gift/
Canadianartist wants Anthropic AI lawsuit corrected
date: 2024-08-31, updated: 2024-08-31, from: The Register (UK I.T.News)
Tim Boucher objects to the mischaracterization of his work in authors’copyright claim
Interview Tim Boucher, a Canadian artist, author, andAI activist, sent a letter to the San Francisco judge overseeing anauthors’ lawsuit against AI firm Anthropic to object to the way thelegal filing characterizes his work.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/31/canadian_artist_anthropic_ai_lawsuit/
Gazaconflict shapes — and reshapes — political views of Muslim Americanvoters
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
Highrents are forcing small businesses into tough choices
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK —While many costs have come down for small businesses,rents remain high and in some cases are still rising, forcing manyowners into some uncomfortable decisions.
“Every time the rent goes up, we have to raise prices, to keep upwith the cost,” said Adelita Valentine, owner of HairFreek Barbers inLos Angeles. “But with the cost of living, it makes it difficult on ourcustomers.”
Other owners are choosing to be late on payments or seeking out newlocations where the rent is lower. A few are pushing back against theirlandlord.
Although inflation is easing, it remains a top concern for smallbusinesses. According to Bank of America internal data, rent paymentsper small business client rose 11% year-over-year in July. That’s morethan twice the increase for renting and owning a residence, a metricknown as shelter, according to the government’s monthly Consumer PriceIndex. That figure rose 5.1% in July.
And although the situation has improved since the height of thepandemic, a survey by business networking platform Alignable of morethan 6,000 small business owners found that 41% could not pay their Julyrent on time and in full. And 52% said they’ve encountered rent spikesin the past six months.
The rent for Valentine’s barbershop rose to $4,000 in January from$3,600 in December, the fifth increase in the past eight years. She hadto raise the price for her cuts from $35 to $40.
Two months ago, she moved locations for a cheaper $3,200 rent, buther space is smaller now and she sees fewer families coming in.
“A lot of people can’t afford to take a whole family to gethaircuts,” after the price increase, she said.
Peter Yu has owned iPAC Automotive, an auto repair and detailing shopin Ontario, Canada, for six years. He said the rent on the shoptypically went up about 4% a year. But when his landlord sold theproperty to a new owner, Yu’s rent jumped from about $1,800 (2,500Canadian dollars) to about $2,700 (3,700 Canadian dollars) after threemonths.
He contemplated moving but decided that the cost of a move would bemore than just paying the extra rent.
Yu tried to raise prices a month ago, but customers would come in andsay “Oh, its too expensive,” and leave, he said. So, he had to drop theprice increase in order to get those customers back.
“When we do try to raise our prices, consumers don’t have the moneyto pay for it. They’re looking for financing options,” he said. Yu’sservices run the gamut from paint correction that costs a few hundreddollars to troubleshooting problematic EV battery and electric driveunits for out-of-warranty Teslas that can cost up to $15,000.
So instead, he’s going to try to improve his marketing, close moresales, and find a way to offer more financing.
Standing firm against a landlord sometimes works. Janna Rodriguez hasrun her home-based The Innovative Daycare Corp.in Freeport, New York,since 2018. When she first signed her lease, she paid $3,500, plus costsincluding landscaping and maintenance. In 2020, the pandemic began, andher landlord raised her rent to $3,800 and also made her start payinghalf of the homeowner’s insurance. Last year, the landlord raised herrent to $4,100, plus the additional expenses.
Rodriguez raised her prices for the first time, by $10 per child perweek, to help offset the rising rent.
This year she successfully pushed back when the landlord wanted toraise the rent yet again.
“I said to them, if you do that, then I’m going to find anotherproperty to move my business to, because at this point now you’re tryingto bankrupt a business, right?”
It’s worked – so far. But Rodriguez is worried about the future.
For others, negotiating a late payment is an option. Nicole Pomijeowner of Minneapolis-based The Cookie Cups, which makes cookie kits forkids, has a 372-square-meter office space along with a warehouse whereshe develops her line of baking kits. Her rent rose 10% this year to$4,000 monthly. Then there are unanticipated bills, such as $1,500 forsnow plowing.
“There’s so much stuff that pops up that you just you never expect,”she said. “And it’s always when you never expect it.”
Pomije hasn’t raised prices, but instead tried to mitigate the higherrent costs by buying materials in bulk – like ordering 5,000 boxesinstead of 1,000 boxes for a 40% discount – and finding cost savingselsewhere.
Still, there have been several months over the past couple of yearswhere she couldn’t pay rent on time. So, far the landlord has beenamenable.
“If we have a conversation like hey, we don’t know if we’re going tomake it for the first this month. It might be closer to the tenth,” shesaid.
Asked if she thinks costs might ease in the future, Pomije said sheis focused on the present.
“It’s weird, but I’m trying not to think about the future too muchand I’m trying to just do what we have to do, and get ready for aholiday season and just, like, get everything paid on time now,” shesaid. “And then we’ll kind of reevaluate everything in January.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/high-rents-are-forcing-small-businesses-in-into-tough-choices/7763504.html
Here’swhat Harris and Trump have said about easing costs for families
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON —The high cost of caring for children and the elderly hasforced women out of the workforce, devastated family finances, and leftprofessional caretakers in low-wage jobs — all while slowing economicgrowth.
That families are suffering is not up for debate. As the economyemerges as a theme in this presidential election, the Democratic andRepublican candidates have sketched out ideas for easing costs thatreveal their divergent views about family.
On this topic, the two tickets have one main commonality: Both of thepresidential candidates — and their running mates — have, at one pointor another, backed an expanded child tax credit.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who accepted the Democratic Party’snomination last week, has signaled that she plans to build on theambitions of outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration, which soughtto pour billions in taxpayer dollars into making child care and homecare for elderly and disabled adults more affordable. She has not etchedany of those plans into a formal policy platform. But in a speechearlier this month, she said her vision included raising the child taxcredit.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican, has declined to answerquestions about how he would make child care more affordable, eventhough it was an issue he tackled during his own administration. Hisrunning mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, has a long history of pushingpolicies that would encourage Americans to have families, floating ideaslike giving parents votes for their children. Just this month, Vancesaid he wants to raise the child tax credit to $5,000. But Vance hasopposed government spending on child care, arguing that many childrenbenefit from having one parent at home as caretaker.
The candidates’ care agendas could figure prominently into theirappeal to suburban women in swing states, a coveted demographic seen askey to victory in November. Women provide two-thirds of unpaid care work— valued at $1 trillion annually — and are disproportionately impactedwhen families can’t find affordable care for their children or agingparents. And the cost of care is an urgent problem: Child care pricesare rising faster than inflation.
Kamala Harris: Increase child tax credit
When Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention, she talkedfirst about her own experience with child care. She was raised mostly bya single mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who worked long hours as a breastcancer researcher. Among the people who formed her family’s supportnetwork was “Mrs.Shelton, who ran the day care below us and became asecond mother.”
As vice president, Harris worked behind the scenes in Congress onBiden’s proposals to establish national paid family leave, makeprekindergarten universal, and invest billions in child care so familieswouldn’t pay more than 7% of their income. She announced, too, theadministration’s actions to lower copays for families using federalchild care vouchers, and to raise wages for Medicaid-funded home healthaides. Before that, her track record as a senator included pressing forgreater labor rights for domestic workers, including nannies and homehealth aides who may be vulnerable to exploitation.
This month at a community college in North Carolina, Harris outlinedher campaign’s economic agenda, which includes raising the child taxcredit to as much as $3,600 and giving families of newborns even more —$6,000 for the child’s first year.
“That is a vital — vital year of critical development of a child, andthe costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need tobuy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else,” she told theaudience. Her running mate selection of Tim Walz, who established paidleave and a child tax credit as governor of Minnesota, has also buoyedoptimism among supporters.
Donald Trump: Few specifics, but some past support
For voters grappling with the high cost of child care, Trump hasoffered little in the way of solutions. During the June presidentialdebate, CNN moderator Jake Tapper twice asked Trump what he would do tolower child care costs. Both times, he failed to answer, insteadpivoting to other topics. His campaign platform is similarly silent. Itdoes tackle the cost of long-term care for the elderly, writing thatRepublicans would “support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Creditsand reduced red tape.”
The silence marks a shift from his first campaign, when he pitchedpaid parental leave, though it was panned by critics because hisproposal excluded fathers. When he reached the White House, the formerpresident sought $1 billion for child care, plus a parental leave policyat the urging of his daughter and policy adviser, Ivanka Trump. Congressrejected both proposals, but Trump succeeded in doubling the child taxcredit and establishing paid leave for federal employees.
In his 2019 State of the Union address, Trump said he was “proud tobe the first president to include in my budget a plan for nationwidepaid family leave, so that every new parent has the chance to bond withtheir newborn child.”
This year, there are signs that his administration might not pursuethe same agenda, including his selection of Vance as a running mate. In2021, before he joined the Senate, Vance co-authored an op-ed for TheWall Street Journal opposing a proposal to invest billions in child careto make it more affordable for families. He and his co-author saidexpanding child care subsidies would lead to “unhappier, unhealthierchildren” and that having fewer mothers contributing to the economymight be a worthwhile trade-off.
Vance has floated policies that would make it easier for a family tolive off of a single income, making it possible for some parents to stayhome while their partners work. Along with his embrace of policies hecalls pro-family, he has tagged people who do not have or want childrenas “sociopaths.” He once derided Harris and other rising Democraticstars as “childless cat ladies,” even though Harris has two stepchildren— they call her “Momala” — and no cats.
Even without details about new care policies, Trump believes thatfamilies would ultimately get a better deal under hisadministration.
The Trump-Vance campaign has attacked Harris’ record on the economyand said the Biden administration’s policies have only made thingstougher for families, pointing to recent inflation.
“Harris … has proudly and repeatedly celebrated her role as JoeBiden’s co-pilot on Bidenomics,” said Karoline Leavitt, a campaignspokeswoman. “The basic necessities of food, gas and housing are lessaffordable, unemployment is rising, and Kamala doesn’t seem tocare.”
Vanuatuancestral relics, trafficked as art to New York, return home
date: 2024-08-31, from: VOA News USA
Summary of changes forAugust 2024
date: 2024-08-31, from: Hundred Rabbits blog
Hey everyone!
This is the list of all the changes we’ve done to our projects duringthe month of August.
Summary Of Changes
- 100r.co, added new pages:Sointula,JohnstoneStrait anchorages, andCentralcoast anchorages. Updated existing pages: addedYuculta andDent rapids withsouthboundtactics, nowindlass with 3 new photos,lpg withtroubleshooting,and gimballedstove withperformancetests.
- Left, added supportfor macros.
- Uxnfor,added support for macros.
- Uxn, found a tinyoptimization that makes things a bit faster.
- M291,started a little music player forUxn11.
- Wiktopher,updated some Solresol words in theIlkensongs featured in the book.
- Hakum,added a new comic namedSmile.
- WunderlandRabbits, added a newrabbitpic.
This month, Pino reached the northern tip of Vancouver Island, sailedsouth through Johnstone Strait, and into calmer, familiar waters on the11th of August. Both of us were eager for a taste of summer weather, wehoped to catch what was left of it. Our legs demanded an anchorage withoptions for walking, so we chose to anchor in {Hathayim Marine Park}.The lovely people on the sailboat Nanamuk were anchored here too, theymappedmany of the trails in the area, even the overgrown, less-traveledroutes. Weupdated oursummer route map through northern B.C.
From May 1st to August 11th, like with our bookBusy DoingNothing, Rek kept a detailed logbook of daily happenings onboard. Wehope to publish these notes to this wiki soon.
Book Club: This month we are reading The Adventures ofSherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Design of EverydayThings by Don Norman, and Everyday Utopia: What 2000 years ofWild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Kristen R.Ghodsee.
https://100r.co/site/log.html#aug2024
MP3 for image compression(2006)
date: 2024-08-31, from: Tilde.news
https://keyj.emphy.de/mp3-for-image-compression/
GPT appsfail to disclose data collection, study finds
date: 2024-08-31, updated: 2024-08-31, from: The Register (UK I.T.News)
Researchers say that implementing Actions omit privacy details andexpose info
Many of the GPT apps in OpenAI’s GPT Store collect data and facilitateonline tracking in violation of OpenAI policies, researchers claim.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/31/gpt_apps_data_collection/
Who Wins With Cursor &Copilot?
date: 2024-08-31, updated: 2024-08-31, from: Tom Kellog blog
Who wins now that Cursor is out? Good programmers? Bad programmers?Here, I make the case that it is more about your tempermant andpersonality traits. If you’re good in the places where the AI is weak,you’ll knock it out of the park.
http://timkellogg.me/blog/2024/08/31/llm-pairing
How Oprah will screw upthe AI story
date: 2024-08-31, updated: 2024-08-31, from: Anil Dash
