Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other Democrats want to pay retirees an additional $2,400 in their Social Security checks — by raising taxes on the richest Americans


Joseph Zeballos-Roig

INSIDER
Thu, June 9, 2022

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Susan Walsh/AP Photo; Tom Williams/Pool via AP

Sens. Sanders and Warren rolled out a plan to boost Social Security checks.

But Republicans slammed the proposal's tax hikes to finance the larger benefits for retirees.

The GOP generally favors other steps to preserve Social Security, like raising the retirement age.

There's a Social Security benefits cliff looming, with retirees seeing their checks garnished as soon as 2035.

According to the latest federal Social Security report, the program has just enough funding to send out monthly checks to older Americans and those with disabilities for 13 years. Beyond that, a 20% reduction in benefits is needed for the program to be sustainable.

"In the coming decades it will be vital for Congress to take steps to put Social Security and Medicare on solid financial footing for the long term," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement on the Social Security report.

Sen. Bernie Sanders — alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a bevy of other Democrats — are putting forward a plan to change that.



Their proposal: a bill that would increase the benefit by $2,400 a year and fully fund the program through 2096.

To pay for it, the Democrats are proposing a raise to the earnings cap for paying into Social Security. Right now, Americans are taxed only on their first $147,000 in income to pay for Social Security; earnings beyond that are not touched.

Sanders' Social Security Expansion Act "would lift this cap and subject all income above $250,000 to the Social Security payroll tax," according to a fact sheet released by the senator.

Raising the income threshold isn't a new concept, and it's one that Sen. Joe Manchin, a key centrist, has already expressed support for. Earlier this year, the Democrat from West Virginia said the payroll-tax cap should be taken up to $400,000 to put Social Security on a more sustainable fiscal path.

While Sanders' plan is one solution to patching the ailing — and popular — program, Republicans indicated that it wouldn't draw their votes. They tend to resist tax increases to fund more generous safety net benefits, favoring other fixes.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, suggested in a Thursday congressional hearing that the program's retirement age would probably need to be raised, a step that Sen. Mitt Romney expressed support for earlier this year. Romney previously proposed the TRUST Act, a bipartisan bill directed at helping fix Social Security and other ailing programs. Critics said that legislation might end up cutting some benefits.

"Sen. Sanders makes a wonderful plea, which many, many people agree with — the need for helping our seniors and providing better benefits for them and so forth," Romney, a Republican from Utah, said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. "But recognize this bill has no chance whatsoever of receiving a single Republican vote in either house."

White House climate adviser says misinformation ‘absolutely’ a public health issue



Zack Budryk

THE HILL
Thu, June 9, 2022

White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy on Thursday said that the spread of false information about climate change is “absolutely” a threat to public health.

McCarthy made the comments as part of an interview for Axios’ event “The Infodemic Age” on Thursday.

Asked whether climate misinformation disseminated on social media represents a public health threat, McCarthy responded, “Absolutely,” adding “it’s not just an island, there’s also greenwashing,” referencing the practice of companies or institutions misrepresenting their work as environmentally friendly.

“The public health issue [is] one of the big challenges that we face, fossil fuel companies and climate change, posing a significant threat to public health,” McCarthy added. “Fossil fuels have actually created significant health challenges on our country, not just climate change, but we’re talking about pollution that’s impacting people’s lives … we are talking about, really, risks that no longer need to be tolerated in our communities.”

The World Health Organization estimates ambient air pollution is linked to about 4.2 million premature deaths per year, while indoor air pollution is a factor in about 3.8 million deaths. The Air Quality Life Index estimates billions of people lose up to six years of their lives due to air quality issues.

McCarthy, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, added that the dissemination of climate misinformation “continues to make my job difficult.”

“What we saw in the 70s and 80s when we were working on these challenges, and in particular in the 80s, we saw that the fossil fuel companies were actually using dark money and playing off the playbook of the tobacco industry to figure out how they could seed denial of the challenge of climate as the tobacco companies did,” she said. Since then, she said, outright denial of climate change has become a far more fringe view, “but the dark money is still there.”

“The fossil fuel companies are still basically trying their best to make sure that people don’t understand the challenge of climate, but now it’s not so much about denying the problem,” she said. “Now the challenge, really, is how do we accelerate the solutions we have available to us, the technology improvements that we’ve seen that are most cost effective?”

Judges on strike in Tunisia, say the justice system is a political tool


Issued on: 10/06/2022

Tunisian lawyers and judges held a small protest outside the capital’s courts Wednesday as part of their weeklong strike following the president’s dismissal of 57 judges. President Kais Saied's removal of the judges was the latest sign of growing interference in the judiciary as he tightens his grip on power.

Rolex worn during WWII 'Great Escape' sells for US$189,000 in New York

Gerald Imeson wore the watch until his death in 2003 at the age of 85.

 PHOTO: AFP


NEW YORK (AFP) - A Rolex watch worn by a British prisoner -of-war  during the real-life "Great Escape" from the Nazi Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war (POW) camp sold for US$189,000 (S$261,000) on Thursday (June 9) in New York.

The final sum for the timepiece, sold to an anonymous buyer, was less than the US$200,000 and US$400,000 expected by Christie's.

The watch was worn by Gerald Imeson on the night of March 24, 1944, when a group of Allied soldiers undertook the daring escape that inspired the 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen.

Imeson had ordered the watch from Rolex in Switzerland, who shipped it via the Red Cross to the prison camp near the present-day Polish town of Zagan, Christie's said.

The steel watch with a black luminous dial and hands was "instrumental in the planning and execution" of their bid for freedom, the auction house added.

Christie's said it believed Imeson's watch helped calculate the time it would take the prisoners to crawl through tunnels used in the breakout as well as timing the patrols of the camp guards.

Imeson wore the Oyster Chronograph watch as he waited 172nd in line to escape, according to Christie's.

Of the 200 prisoners who participated in the plan, 76 briefly escaped. Imeson was not among them. All but three of the men were captured and 50 were executed.

Imeson was liberated from another POW camp at the end of the war in 1945.

He wore the watch until his death in 2003 at the age of 85. It was first auctioned in Britain in 2013.

The watch was sold along with several other items, including a Royal Air Force whistle and a membership card for The Goldfish Club - reserved for pilots and crew who have crash landed into the sea and survived.

Wreck of 17th-century royal warship found off UK coast


LONDON (AP) — Explorers and historians are telling the world about the discovery of the wreck of a royal warship that sank in 1682 while carrying a future king of England, Ireland and Scotland.



The HMS Gloucester, traveling from southern England to Scotland, ran aground while navigating sandbanks off the town of Great Yarmouth on the eastern English coast. It sank within an hour, killing an estimated 130 to 250 crew and passengers.

James Stuart, the son of King Charles I, survived. He went on to reign as King James II of England and Ireland, and as James VII of Scotland from 1685 to 1688, when he was deposed by the Glorious Revolution.

The wreck of the Gloucester was found in 2007 by brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell and others after a four-year search. It was firmly identified in 2012 with discovery of the ship’s bell.

The discovery was only made public Friday because of the time it took to confirm the identity of the ship and the need to protect the historical site.

Claire Jowitt, an expert in maritime history at the University of East Anglia, said the wreck was “one of the important ‘almost’ moments in English history.” The Gloucester's sinking almost caused the death of the Catholic heir to the Protestant throne at a time of great political and religious tension in Britain.


“If he had died, we would have had a very different British and European history as a result,” Jowitt said.

“I think this is a time capsule that offers the opportunity to find it out so much about life on a 17th-century ship. The royal nature of the ship is absolutely incredible and unique,” she added.

She believes the wreck is the most important maritime discovery since the Mary Rose, the warship from the Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. The Mary Rose capsized with a crew of around 500 in 1545 in the Solent, a strait between the Isle of Wight and the British mainland. A huge salvage operation brought it back to the surface in 1982.

There are no current plans to raise the wreck of the Gloucester because much of it is buried under sand.

“We’ve only just touched the tip of an iceberg," Julian Barnwell said.

Artifacts rescued from the wreck include clothes, shoes, navigational equipment and many wine bottles. One bottle bears a seal with the crest of the Legge family — the ancestors of George Washington, the first U.S president. The crest was a forerunner to the Stars and Stripes flag.

An exhibition is planned next spring at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery to display finds from the wreck and share ongoing research.

Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press

Textile industry set to unravel under Pakistan's power crisis


Fri, June 10, 2022


Pakistan's textile exports are set to dramatically dip as the sector is hobbled by a nationwide energy crisis forcing daily power cuts on factories, with an industry leader warning about "a state of emergency" for the manufacturing hub.

The South Asian nation is in the midst of a dire economic crisis, with runaway inflation, a depleted rupee and dwindling foreign exchange reserves hampering energy imports.

Meanwhile a heatwave has caused a surge in electricity demand, leaving a shortfall of over 7,000 megawatts -- one-fifth of Pakistan's generation capacity -- on some days this month, according to government figures.

The energy shortage has hit Pakistan's vital textile industry, which supplies everything from denim to bed linen towards markets in the US and Europe, and accounts for 60 percent of the country's exports.

"The textile industry is in a state of emergency," Qasim Malik, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce in the manufacturing hub of Sialkot, told AFP.

With authorities forced to ration the power supply with staggered blackouts, Malik said the "unannounced and unscheduled" outages disrupt the textile supply chain, which is "causing millions of rupees of losses".

"Should the power cuts persist there could be a decline of more than 20 percent in exports," warned Sheikh Luqman Amin of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Larger factories tend to have independent power plants, leaving small- and medium-sized factories in cities such as Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot most exposed.

Owners have complained of power cuts of eight to 12 hours on a daily basis and face the dilemma of lower production or installing generators powered by petrol, which is also sharply rising in cost.

"We can't accept new orders because we are already behind on previous ones," said Sialkot garment factory owner Usman Arshad.

"Things can't continue to go on this way."

Despite the nation's economic woes, textile exports surged 28 percent to a record $17.67 billion in the fiscal year July-May 2021/22, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association reported this week.

The Pakistani industry was buoyed by the tail end of the coronavirus pandemic, when it was freed of restrictions earlier than regional rivals India and Bangladesh.

The new government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to announce a budget on Friday attempting to turn around Pakistan's dire finances.

It is expected the ledger will include a raft of measures to convince the International Monetary Fund to revive a stalled $6 billion bailout package.

kf/jts/ecl/dhc

La Nina likely to last at least till August: WMO

Jayashree Nandi - TODAY
Hindustan Times

New Delhi: There is a high probability that the ongoing La Niña, which has affected temperatures and rainfall patterns, exacerbated drought and flooding globally, will continue until at least August, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday. Some predictions even suggest it might persist into 2023. If so, it will only be the third such instance since 1950 of La Niña lasting three years, WMO said.


© Provided by Hindustan TimesLa Niña has exacerbated drought and flooding globally. (AP)

Experts said La Nina’s continuation may not be bad because it supports good rainfall in India during monsoon. “The first 15 days of monsoon may be slow but we are expecting it to pick up from next week. The forecast of La Nina conditions continuing at least till August is good news,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (climate change and meteorology) at Skymet Weather. He added they continue to expect a normal monsoon between 96 to 104% of long period average (LPA). “In fact, rain is likely to be on the higher side of the normal category.’

But longer projections indicate evolving El Nino conditions next year, which could mean severe heat and a poor monsoon in India. “Some projections are [also] suggesting...a devolving La Nina next year. Its early to tell but El Nino, if it arises, will definitely hamper our monsoon in 2023,” said Palawat.

The ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa and southern South America, above average rainfall in South-East Asia and Australasia and predictions for an above average Atlantic hurricane season are all linked to La Nina, WMO said.

“Human induced climate change amplifies the impacts of naturally occurring events like La Niña and is increasingly influencing our weather patterns, in particular through more intense heat and drought and the associated risk of wildfires – as well as record-breaking deluges of rainfall and flooding,” said WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas.

The current La Niña started in September 2020 and continued through mid-May 2022 across the tropical Pacific. There was a temporary weakening between January and February but it has strengthened since March

WMO’s long range forecasts indicate there is about a 70% chance of the La Niña conditions extending into boreal summer this year (June to October), and about 50-60% during July-September.

There are some indications that the probability may increase slightly during the boreal fall of 2022 and early boreal winter of 2022-23 (December to February). “Despite the stubborn La Niña in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific, widespread warmer than-average sea-surface temperatures elsewhere are predicted to dominate the forecast of air temperatures for June-August 2022. However, the extent and strength of predicted warming is less than during March-May 2022... ,” WMO said.

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), moderate La Niña conditions are prevailing over the equatorial Pacific region. La Niña conditions are likely to continue throughout the forecast period till September. The probability forecast for El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indicates the enhanced probability for La Niña conditions is likely during most of the forecasted seasons.

In May, IMD said monsoon rainfall between June to September is likely to be “normal” at 103%, with a model error of +/-4%. in April, IMD said monsoon rainfall was likely to be 99% of LPA.

IMD director general M Mohapatra said last month that they have increased the quantum of rainfall likely during monsoon because projections are showing La Nina conditions will continue till the end of monsoon. “La Nina conditions will support normal rains which may be countered a little due to development of negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions over the Indian Ocean.”

La Nina has a cooling influence in India even as it recorded a very unusual spring and summer dominated by extreme record-breaking heat spells. Experts said worse is yet to come during the upcoming El Nino season.

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll said intensity of El Ninos has increased and is protected to increase further under background ocean warming. “It is too early to tell if we would have an El Nino next year, but as per the climate cycle and recent trends, it might appear in the next two years and that would break records in terms of global temperatures.”

Koll said El Ninos generally weaken the monsoon winds and can reduce the amount of rainfall in India. “It can also lead to intense marine heatwaves in the Indian Ocean that can affect cyclones and fisheries. So, we should be watchful of upcoming El Ninos, particularly the strong ones.”

La Niña involves the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation (winds), pressure and rainfall. It usually has the opposite impacts on weather and climate. El Niño is the warm phase of ENSO, which has a major influence on weather and climate patterns such as heavy rains, floods and drought. In India, El Nino is associated with drought or weak monsoon. La Nina is associated with strong monsoon and above average rains and colder winters.

Art therapy: Dakar's Biennale showcases artwork by psychiatric patients

Issued on: 10/06/2022

With music softly playing in the background and the smell of brewing tea floating in the air, patients at the 'Atelier d'EX-pression' at the Moussa Diop psychiatric clinic in Dakar are busy preparing for the opening of their art exhibition as part the contemporary African art biennale in the Senegalese capital.

Old tricks, new crises: how US misinformation spreads

Daniel FUNKE
Thu, June 9, 2022, 


With gun control under debate and monkeypox in the headlines, Americans are facing a barrage of new twists on years-old misinformation in their social media feeds.

Accurate news stories about mass shootings have attracted eyeballs but algorithms have also spurred baseless conspiracy theories from trolls who want to push lies to attract traffic. And thousands have unwittingly shared them on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

The May 24 attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was a "false flag" operation aimed at pushing restrictive gun laws, according to Telegram posts from supporters of QAnon.

Carl Paladino, a New York congressional candidate, was among those who shared a similar theory on Facebook, later deleting it.

Others misidentified a shooting victim as "Bernie Gores" -- a made-up name paired with an image of a YouTuber who has been wrongly linked to other major news events, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Experts say such misinformation is part of a pattern in which unscrupulous operators intentionally repurpose old narratives.

"A lot of this stuff is put together almost in this factory production style," said Mike Caulfield, a misinformation researcher at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public.

"You have a shooting event, you have these various tropes you can apply."

Groundless claims of a "false flag" operation, which refers to political or military action that is carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent, can be traced back to the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

After 20 children and six staff members were killed, InfoWars founder Alex Jones falsely claimed the Newtown casualties were "crisis actors" -- people who are paid or volunteer to play disaster victims.

In November 2021, a Connecticut judge found Jones liable for damages in a defamation suit brought by parents of the victims.

But regardless, allegations of staged mass shootings have routinely spread from fringe online networks such as 4chan to mainstream platforms -- including the social media feeds of politicians such as Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and, more recently, Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers.

Hoax posts misidentifying gunmen or victims as internet personalities have also become common.

In the race to capture online attention following breaking news, recycled narratives can be produced quickly and are easier for audiences to digest, Caulfield said. Content producers "make guesses" about what may go viral based on past popular tropes, which can help monetize that attention.

"When you spread this stuff, you want to be seen as in the know," he said, even though the information is demonstrably false or misleading.

- Copying the Covid-19 playbook -

Similarly, false claims about the recent spread of monkeypox -- a rare disease related to smallpox -- borrow from Covid-19 misinformation.

Since the outbreak, social media posts have claimed without evidence that the virus is a bioweapon, that the outbreak was planned, and that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it. Others have falsely equated monkeypox to other viruses, including shingles.

Those claims resemble debunked conspiracy theories from the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Memetica, a firm that conducts digital investigations, has researched some of the top Covid-19 misinformation recycled for monkeypox. One widespread theory points to a 2021 threat preparation exercise conducted by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) as purported evidence that the outbreak was planned.

That conspiracy theory is nearly identical to claims about Event 201, a pandemic simulation held in October 2019, that circulated online in early 2020.

"What was surprising to me was how similar (Covid-19 misinformation) is now to monkeypox," Adi Cohen, chief operating officer at Memetica, told AFP.

"It's the same exact story -- oh, this is all planned, it's a 'plandemic,' here's the proof."

Some monkeypox theories have been shared by conservative figures including Glenn Beck and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, according to Memetica's research. Both have previously promoted misinformation about Covid-19.

Cohen said such tactics may be an effective way to get engagement on social media, regardless of the falsity of the information being shared.

"It's the replication of what seems to work in the past," he said. "Why work hard when you don't have to?"

df/adm/sst/aha

Open season: Italy to allow public tenders to manage beaches

Author: AFP|Update: 10.06.2022 

Running Italy's beaches can be lucrative, with a set of two loungers and a parasol costing up to 100 euros ($108) a day / © AFP

Italy has some spectacular beaches but the majority are private, run in an opaque and sometimes shady manner that the government has finally decided to bring into the light.

Up and down Italy's 7,500-kilometre (4,660-mile) coastline, rows of parasols and matching sunbeds fill the sand, with only a few so-called "free beaches" dotted between them.

They provide comfort and shade from the blazing heat, but are also money-making operations, with a set of two loungers and a parasol costing up to 100 euros ($108) a day at peak periods.

Yet the concessions for the beaches have since 1992 been automatically renewed, with the result that they often pay a pittance and are subject to very little oversight -- opening the door to tax fraud, mismanagement and even criminal elements.

Following years of pressure from the European Union, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government has finally agreed to bring in a public tender system, to take effect from 2024.

Everyone who owns a concession will have to reapply, but details of how to compensate the losers for past investments in parasols, shower units and restaurants are still being ironed out.

Maurizio Rustignoli, head of the Fiba-Confesercenti, a trade union that represents beach managers, says the uncertainty is "unacceptable".

In Fregene, a popular beach resort north of Rome, Fabio Di Vilio is the third generation of his family to run the La Scialuppa restaurant and resort.

"I think it's fair if it's done seriously," he said of the reform, as he prepared the tropical-style straw parasols for the start of the season last month.

Beaches are managed by local authorities, and there are vast regional differences / © AFP

He noted the need "to ensure -- if we were to go to auction -- that there were no irregularities".

But the 38-year-old is frustrated at the lack of thought for concession-holders like him.

"You have to give security to those who have a whole history behind them, it's not only an economic investment, it's also a sentimental question," he told AFP.

- 'Not always legal' -

Although the idea of paying to sit by the sea is an unwelcome surprise for many tourists, most Italians are used to the idea, as long as the facilities and the beach are kept clean.

"It would certainly be a good thing if there were more free beaches, provided they do not become, as we often see, a dump," noted Luca Siciliano, 71, sunbathing on the Fregene beach.

He said it was a "good thing" to introduce more competition into the private establishments.

"Because as we know, and I'm sorry to say, behind all this sometimes there are things that are not always legal," he said.

Although the idea of paying to sit by the sea is an unwelcome surprise for many tourists, most Italians are used to the idea / © AFP

As often occurs in Italy, the mafia have got in on the act.

Last month, the Italian agency that manages assets seized from organised crime groups launched a public call for tenders for a concession in Calabria, home of the 'Ndrangheta.

And there is also the matter of undeclared revenues. Despite their number -- there were just over 12,000 concessions in May 2021, according to official figures -- the state only takes in 100 million euros a year from such establishments.

Beaches are managed by local authorities, and there are vast regional differences.

In 2020, 59 concessions in Arzachena, on Sardinia's exclusive Costa Smeralda, brought in just 19,000 euros -- an average of 322 euros paid by each per year, according to daily Il Fatto Quotidiano.

The government has already moved to regularise the system by introducing a minimum annual payment of 2,500 euros.

Even with this, many beach concessions are big business.

According to Il Fatto, almost 6,000 concessions monitored by the finance ministry declared average revenues of 180,000 euros a year -- and two thirds failed to declare the full amount.