PATRIARCHY IS FEMICIDE

Horrific death of Uganda Olympic runner’s is the latest in violence against Kenya female athletes

Hellen Obiri, Rosemary Monica Wanjiru and Agnes Jebet Tirop, from left to right, all of Kenya, compete in the women’s 10,000 meter race during the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019.

 (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File) 

By Gerald Imray - Associated Press - Thursday, September 5, 2024


Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei’s horrific death after being doused with petrol and set on fire by her boyfriend has again brought to the fore Kenya’s harrowing history of domestic violence against female athletes.

Her killing follows the deaths of at least two other high-profile female runners in cases of domestic violence in the last three years in a region that has produced dozens of Olympic and world champions.


Cheptegei, who was from Uganda, died on Thursday at age 33. Police say Cheptegei’s boyfriend poured a can of petrol over her and set her on fire during a dispute on Sunday. She suffered 80% burns on her body and died in a hospital in the town of Eldoret four days later.

The boyfriend was also burned in the attack and is being treated at the same hospital. No criminal charges have yet been announced against him.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month ago, finishing in 44th place. She lived in western Kenya’s famous high-altitude training region that draws the best distance runners from across the world and had recently built a house there to be close to the training centers.

The brutal slaying of Kenyan star runner Tirop in the same region in 2021 led to an outpouring of anger from fellow athletes and prompted the East African country’s athletics authorities to acknowledge the scourge of domestic abuse as a major problem.

Tirop was one of Kenya’s brightest talents when she was stabbed to death at her home in Iten, the other world-renowned distance-running training town in Kenya, alongside Eldoret. Her husband, who was on the run, was arrested days after the killing and has been charged with murder. His court case is still underway.

Like Cheptegei, the 25-year-old Tirop had just competed at an Olympics - the 2021 Tokyo Games - and had set a new world record in the 10-kilometer road race in another competition a month before she was killed. Her body was found with stab wounds to the stomach and neck, as well as blunt trauma injury to her head.

In the weeks after Tirop’s death, current and former male and female athletes, spoke out over what they said was a long-running problem of domestic abuse against female athletes in the region. Some marched through the streets of Iten to demand better protection for female athletes and stricter laws against abusers.

Other Kenyan athletes like Ruth Bosibori, a former African champion in the steeplechase, and Joan Chelimo, a marathon runner, said Tirop’s killing had emboldened them to talk about their own abusive relationships.

Both said they had escaped violent partners that made them fear for their lives.

Just six months after Tirop, another runner was killed. Kenyan-born Muthee, who competed for Bahrain, was found dead in a house in Iten after being strangled. Her decomposing body had been there for days before it was found, authorities said at the time.

A male Ethiopian runner with whom she was in a relationship was charged with murder. Muthee, who was 28, had a young child from another relationship.

The cases of domestic abuse in Kenya’s running community are set against the country’s overriding high rates of violence against women, which has prompted marches by ordinary citizens in towns and cities this year.

WILLING VICTIMS, ALL TOO WILLING

Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot

Phil McCausland
BBC News, Washington

Benny Johnson, a conservative US commentator, says he was a victim if the allegations of the Russian plot prove true.


Conservative US influencers say if the allegations are proven, they were deceived by Russian media executives following the release of an indictment charging Moscow with interfering in the 2024 US election.

The indictment accuses state broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today, of paying a Tennessee firm $10m (£7.6m) to "create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging".

US media outlets identified the firm as Tenet Media, which describes itself as "network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues".

Tenet Media, which was was not directly named in the indictment, was founded in 2022 by conservative Canadian YouTuber Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Tenet has not commented publicly on the allegations and did not respond to a request for comment.


The network employs several well-known right-wing US influencers - such as Tim Pool, David Rubin and Benny Johnson - who say they are "victims" of the alleged plot if it is proven.

US officials characterised the US and Canada-based influencers that worked for Tenet as "unwitting" figures in the Russian scheme, which allegedly paid some commentators hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to make videos for the platform.

The indictment says that videos - which often promoted right-wing narratives on issues such as immigration, gender and the economy - were secretly "edited, posted, and directed" by two RT employees.

“While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine,” the indictment said.

Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva were identified in the indictment as the RT staffers. The justice department has charged them with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

In a response to a request for comment on the indictment, RT's press team said: "2016 called and it wants its clichés back".

The indictment says that Mr Klashnikov "monitored" the company's "funding, hiring and contract negotiations" with some of the commentators and Ms Afanasyeva was involved in the firm's editorial efforts.

It is said that the company's founders did find the ease they had in acquiring funding to be suspicious.

The platform's two founders "admitted to each other in their private communications that their 'investors' were, in truth and in fact, the 'Russians'", the indictment says.

Commentators say they were 'victims'


Several of the influencers said on social media that, if the allegations are true, they should be considered "victims" of the plot. They also insisted that they maintained full editorial control over their content.

Mr Pool, whose The Culture War Podcast was licensed by Tenet Media, told his 2.1 million followers on X/Twitter that if "these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims. I cannot speak for anyone else at the company as to what they do or to what they are instructed".

Mr Johnson, who has 2.7 million followers on X, said on Wednesday that he was “disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme”.

He said that his company's lawyers had "negotiated a standard, arms length deal" after they were approached by the media startup. He said that agreement was later terminated.

Mr Rubin, who boasts 1.5 million followers on X, said his show on Tenet ended months ago, and that he had not been contacted by the justice department.

"I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme," he wrote concerning the allegations. "I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity."

The indictment says that the media company posted about 2,000 videos that received more than 16 million views on YouTube since the plot got underway.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday.

Two of Tenet Media's other contributors said on a livestream that they were never told what to say in their content.

“How am I unwittingly duped into saying someone else’s words when I wrote every one of them?” Matt Christiansen, a less prominent commentator, said.


How the Russians allegedly hired media influencers


The court document alleges that the commentators exacted a huge payout in negotiations, with three of the biggest stars getting paid $8.7m.

According to the indictment, the Russian scheme directed a founder of the media company to recruit two conservative influencers by offering them $2m a year.

The indictment says that one of the commentators responded that "it would need to be closer to 5 million yearly for him to be interested", and the other said "it would take 100k per weekly episode to make it worth his while".

The first influencer allegedly eventually agreed to make four videos per month for $400,000, and the other, according to the indictment, allegedly agreed to be paid $100,000 per video.

To close the negotiations, the Russians allegedly fabricated a Hungarian businessman named "Eduard Grigoriann" as a key investor. They went so far as to create a fake CV for the false identity, according to the court documents, and held phone calls with an agent posing as him.


The indictment cites multiple instances in which the platform's employees had their own suspicions about the arrangement they found themselves in.

Ms Afanasyeva is said to have shared a video to be posted made by a well-known political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia. Media outlets have identified this alleged commentator as Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News star, who visited Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin.

He uses Russia's store prices to opine on US inflation and cost-of-living issues. There is no suggestion he was aware of the alleged plot.

According to the indictment, a producer privately messaged one of the company's founders complaining that "they want me to post this" but added that "it just feels like overt shilling".

The producer is said to have ultimately put the video out at the founder's direction.

At another point, Ms Afanasyeva allegedly directed one of the founders to get "one of our creators" to "record something about (the) Moscow terror attack" in an effort to link it to Ukraine and the United States, despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility.

The indictment suggests that the commentators ultimately fulfilled her requests, but Ms Afanasyeva is said to have grown annoyed multiple times when she did not think they were promoting the company's videos enough.

Silent Marches Sweep Across Tel Aviv Streets

September 5, 2024


Hundreds of Israelis have marched silently through the streets of Tel Aviv carrying 27 mock coffins to represent the 27 prisoners whose bodies have been recovered by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days, calling for a prisoners-release deal and saying time is running out to bring home the captives alive.

Israeli prisoners’ families have accused Netanyahu of blocking a ceasefire and sacrificing their loved ones’ lives for the sake of “achieving all the goals,” they said in a raged public statements.

Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, one of six captives whose bodies were recovered last weekend, said that Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, sentenced Carmel, my cousin, to death – her and all the hostages.”

“She was abandoned to her death by the government. [It] could have brought her back. Three hundred twenty-seven days she was there in Gaza in captivity. There were 327 opportunities to bring her back, and every single one was missed.”

Netanyahu has been accused of setting roadblocks in the ceasefire talks.

According to several US officials who spoke to the New York Times, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stalling and “seeking to run out the clock until the American election” to secure a deal over captives in Gaza, believing that a Trump victory could reduce pressure to make concessions.

US officials claim they aim to finalize a proposal for the deal by Wednesday or Thursday, with key disagreements over the number of prisoners to be exchanged and the terms of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza-Egypt border.

Arrest of French nurse who spent 2 weeks in Gaza draws backlash

Imane Maarifi's arrest, search of her home ‘in front of family leaves no doubt about the desire to intimidate the voices that are raised to support the Palestinian people and demand an immediate ceasefire,’ says France Unbowed (LFI) party lawmaker

Seyma Yigit |05.09.2024 -



ANKARA

The arrest of Imane Maarifi, a French nurse who spent 15 days in the Gaza Strip, sparked backlash Thursday in France.

Lawyer Rafik Chekkat, founder of the Islamophobia platform, said Maarifi was arrested in the morning at her home and taken into custody.

He criticized the arrest and said it took place at a time when French soldiers who fought in Gaza "enjoy total impunity."

Thomas Portes, a lawmaker from the La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed (LFI) party, wrote that Maarifi has been released from custody.

"The search of the home in front of the family leaves no doubt about the desire to intimidate the voices that are raised to support the Palestinian people and demand an immediate ceasefire," he wrote on X.

Maarifi attended pro-Palestinian rallies in France to share her testimony about the crippling situation in Gaza.

She has also expressed her demand for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and a boycott of companies supporting Israel.

Maarifi, who is known as one of the first French nationals to enter Gaza since Oct. 7, spent 15 days at the European hospital in Khan Younis.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed and nearly 94,300 injured, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

 

China’s World Buddhist Forum aimed at boosting soft power: experts

State media says the October conference will ‘promote world peace,’ but real goals are political, critics say.

By Dickey Kundol and Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan
2024.09.05

Monks and nuns chant during a prayer for world peace at the closing ceremony for the second World Buddhist Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, April 1, 2009.

 Nicky Loh/Reuters

Read RFA’s coverage of this topic in Tibetan.

China will host a global Buddhist conference in October that experts and rights activists outside the country say is aimed at boosting its soft power in Asia and build on its narrative that it has greater influence over Buddhist-majority nations than India, the birthplace of Buddhism.

Monks, experts, scholars and representatives from about 70 countries are expected to attend the sixth World Buddhist Forum in mid-October in the eastern city of Ningbo, Chinese state media reported.

However, the Dalai Lama, perhaps the most prominent Buddhist leader in the world, is not invited. Regarded by Beijing as separatist, the Tibetan spiritual leader hasn’t been invited to any of the past forums since the first one organized by China in 2006.

The goal of the conference, according to the state-run China Daily, is to “promote world peace, improve the well-being of all individuals, and gather wisdom and strength for building a community with a shared future for humanity.”

Gyaltsen Norbu, the Chinese government-appointed 11th Panchen Lama, speaks during an opening ceremony of the third World Buddhist Forum in Hong Kong, April 26, 2012. (Kin Cheung/AP)

But in fact, China has little interest in promoting or protecting Buddhism, and instead is trying to use the conference to achieve its political goals, Sana Hashmi, a postdoctoral fellow at the policy think tank Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, told Radio Free Asia. 

“China has been trying to forge religious diplomacy with countries that have Buddhism as their main religion,” she said. 

“It also wants to show that instead of India, which is the birthplace of Buddhism, China has more influence when it comes to Buddhism.”

By organizing the forum, China is misleading the international community by creating the illusion that the state supports Buddhism, though there is no genuine protection or support for Buddhists within the country, said Shartse Khensur Rinpoche Jangchup Choeden, secretary general of the International Buddhist Confederation.

‘Sinicizing’ Tibetan Buddhism

The conference comes at a time when Beijing is ramping up efforts to “Sinicize” Tibetan Buddhism to bring its religious doctrines into line with Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, ideology and emphasize loyalty to the party and the state.

Although China’s constitution states that its citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief,” in practice this is not the case. Officials routinely clamp down on religious expression by Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims and Christians across the country.

The government officially recognizes Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism, but requires clergy members to pledge allegiance to the CCP and socialism.

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RELATED STORIES

Dalai Lama calls for greater harmony among different Buddhist communities

Young Tibetans gather for first youth empowerment forum in Dharamsala

Tibet’s exile government slams call by China’s Xi Jinping to ‘Sinicize’ Tibetan Buddhism

Buddhists gather in China

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Far from showing that China is preserving Tibetan Buddhism or the Buddhist religion in general, the conference will showcase Beijing’s efforts to assimilate Tibetans and other minority groups and erase their distinctive features and cultures, activists and experts say.

Yan Jue, president of the Buddhist Association of China that's organizing the conference, seemed to acknowledge as much. He said the sixth forum will “adhere to the direction of Sinicization of Buddhism” in China and “fully publicize and display the status of religious freedom in China.”  

‘Key instrument’

The Buddhist Association of China is the official government body supervising Buddhist practice in China, which in turn is overseen by the United Front Work Department of the CCP's Central Committee.

Venerable Master Hsing Yun, founder of Taiwanese Fo Guang Shan, delivers a speech at the opening of the first World Buddhist Forum in Hangzou, China, April 13, 2006. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

The International Campaign for Tibet, a rights group, calls the association a “key instrument” in Beijing’s strategy to assimilate and transform Tibetan Buddhism, especially when it comes to searching for and recognizing reincarnated lamas.

Beijing is using the association to “break down Tibetan Buddhism’s unique characteristics and to change it into a tool of the Chinese state,” the group says.

“Since 2020, under [President] Xi Jinping's leadership, the CCP has intensified efforts to Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism, assigning this task to the Buddhist Association of China, which organizes conferences and events that serve as tools of soft power manipulation,” said Tenzin Dorjee, a Tibetan-American and Buddhist former commissioner at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Tibetan writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue said the conference must shed light on severe restrictions imposed on Buddhist practices, particularly in Tibet and Mongolia, and oppose the CCP’s “manipulation of Buddhism and religion for political gain.”

Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Cladding boss denies contributing to Grenfell disaster

Tom Symonds, Callum May, & Bruno Bolpaep in France
BBC News
Facebook
Claude Wehrle worked for cladding manufacturer Arconic


A cladding company boss heavily criticised by the Grenfell Tower inquiry has denied playing a part in the disaster.

Claude Wehrle, the former head of the technical sales support team at manufacturer Arconic, told BBC News the deaths of 72 people was "a tragedy".

He said he was “not the one making decisions” about the sales of flammable Reynobond PE cladding.

The inquiry's final report said Mr Wehrle resorted to “deliberate dishonesty” to sell the product, including to firms in the UK.



Mr Wehrle prompted outrage among Grenfell victims by refusing to give evidence to the inquiry in person, saying he was prevented from doing so by French law.

The inquiry’s final report criticised him and two other Arconic employees for putting “the debatable requirements of French law above the interests of the survivors".

The report found that following successive fire performance tests in the 2000s, Mr Wehrle realised the cladding was more likely to burn if it was folded into box shapes, a standard design in the building industry, and the form that was used on Grenfell Tower in west London.




In 2010 Mr Wehrle sent an email to colleagues pointing out that, in this shape, the Reynobond PE product would not meet European fire standards for tall buildings, adding “we have to keep [this] as ‘VERY CONFIDENTIAL’”.

The same year he wrote to a customer that the box shape would be safer.

The Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry said this comment demonstrated “his willingness to resort to deliberate dishonesty in order to support the sale of the product”.

Arconic also withheld the test results from a British body which issued product safety certificates used in the construction industry.

Asked by the BBC why, Mr Wehrle - who has since left Arconic and lives in eastern France where he volunteers as a firefighter - insisted it had not been his decision.

He said: “There are people in that company who were better placed than me to make that kind of decision.”

Responding to the fact his name appears more than a hundred times in the inquiry's final report, Mr Wehrle said: “I can’t say whether it is fair or unfair. That’s about justice.”

He said the deaths in the tower were “a tragedy and more than a pity".

“I feel the same way any other human being would, whether bearing no responsibility at all or not," he added.

EXPLAINED: Key findings from the public inquiry

Meanwhile, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said on Thursday that it was "not acceptable" that over 2,000 buildings in the UK still need to have cladding removed.

She vowed to put pressure on the on developers to carry out the works following the release of the damning report into the fire.

Ms Rayner did not set out a timeline for the works to be completed by or announce specific measures for speeding up the process.

The prime minister's official spokesperson said earlier that, “if building owners are not prepared to act… then we will change the law to compel action.”

Downing Street has also said central government does not hold any contracts with any companies involved at Grenfell.

No 10 said there will be a review into weather whether any of the companies still have a sub-contracted role in government supply chains.

Guidance will be issued to public-sector organisations to exclude them where necessary.

Royal Navy Merlin Mk4 ditching kills one crew member

5th September 2024 | by The Shephard News Team

A ditching is a deliberate emergency landing on water, not a crash.

A Royal Navy helicopter ditching off the coast of Dorset in the UK has cost one service member their life, but two other crew members were rescued and were apparently unharmed after the incident.

The crew were aboard a Merlin Mk4 helicopter undertaking night-flying exercises during training with the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The victim has not been named but their immediate family has been informed. The crew member who died was based at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, a station in Somerset.
Related Articles

A ditching is technically different from a crash. The technical definition is actively helpful in adding detail to the course of events, because according to the Civil Aviation Authority, a ditching takes place when there is a “deliberate emergency landing on water”, rather than an “uncontrolled impact”.

The Royal Navy said a full investigation into the ditching would take place and expressed its “great sadness” at the loss of life.

The Merlin Mk4 is generally modified for use by elite forces, most notably the Royal Marines. It can fly at a speed of 160 knots (184mph/296km/h) and has a range of 750 nautical miles. Its modifications include a special fast roping beam that lets special forces out of the main cabin door at speed, for rapid deployment as necessary. These features differentiate the Mk4 physically from the Mk2, which is principally used in anti-submarine combat.

The specialised nature of the Mk4’s modifications suggests that the crew may have been involved in similarly specialised night-flying training when the ditching occurred. The helicopter has not yet been recovered and the recovery is expected to be a long process.

Meta oversight panel says political content cuts could limit dissent in crises including Venezuela’s

Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro won reelection in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, July 29, 2024, the day after the vote. 

AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez, 

By Regina Garcia Cano - Associated Press - Thursday, September 5, 2024


MEXICO CITY — Meta’s efforts to scale back political content on its platforms could limit the reach of people’s expressions of dissent or awareness during crises, including Venezuela’s post-election situation, the company’s oversight panel said Thursday in a decision on cases involving videos taken after the July vote in the South American country.

The quasi-independent Oversight Board urged the social media giant to apply an existing protocol for crisis situations “to ensure that political content during crises can have the same reach as other types of content.”


The decision came as Meta clamps down on the amount of news and political content users see following years of criticism about how it handles misinformation and whether it contributes to political polarization.

Meta set up the board in 2020 to be a referee for content on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The company referred to the board two videos related to pro-government armed groups, known in Venezuela as “colectivos,” that were posted after the July 28 presidential election, whose official result prompted protests across the country.

One of the videos, posted to Instagram, shows a group of armed men on motorcycles pulling up to an apartment complex. A woman can be heard shouting in Spanish that the “colectivos” were trying to access a building, while the person taking the video can be heard yelling in the same language “Go to hell! I hope they kill you all!”

Meta determined the video did not violate its policies because “the expression was a conditional or aspirational statement against a violent actor rather than a call to action,” according to the decision. The board agreed with the company.

The other video reviewed by the Oversight Board was posted on Facebook. It shows people running and a group of men, presumed to be “colectivos” riding motorcycles. The man who filmed the video can be heard saying the group is attacking the people on the street. The caption in Spanish accompanying the post criticizes the government’s security forces for not defending people from the violent, ruling-party loyal gangs and calls on the state’s forces to “kill those damn colectivos.”

Meta took down the video for representing “a call to action to commit high-severity violence,” according to the decision. The board disagreed, finding that it is similar to the Instagram post and, in Venezuela’s current context, “understood as an aspirational statement.”

“The Board acknowledges Meta’s concern that allowing this type of expression could contribute to a heightened risk of offline violence in an ongoing crisis,” according to the decision. “However, given the specific context of Venezuela, in which widespread repression and violence is carried out by state forces jointly with colectivos, and where there are strong restrictions on people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, it is fundamental to allow people to freely express their dissent, anger or desperation, even resorting to strong language.”

Thousands of people, including minors, took to the streets across Venezuela hours after ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the July 28 election. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro’s predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chávez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.

Maduro and his ruling party allies, who control all aspects of government, responded to the demonstrations with full force. A Wednesday report from Human Rights Watch implicated Venezuelan security forces and “colectivos” in some of the 24 deaths that occurred during the protests.

While the National Electoral Council declared Maduro’s victory, it never released vote tallies backing their claim. However, the main opposition coalition claimed that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin and offered as proof vote tallies from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines used in the election.

BABA CARE

JD Vance's plan to lower childcare costs: have grandma and grandpa 'help a little bit more'

Eliza Relman, Juliana Kaplan, and Ayelet Sheffey 

Sep 5, 2024, 
BUSINESS INSIDER
Trump's VP pick JD Vance said older family members should have more options to help with childcare. Anna Moneymaker

JD Vance said in recent remarks that older family members could step in to help with childcare.
It was part of his solution to address high childcare costs in the US.
It comes as many older Americans are facing financial stress as they enter retirement.

JD Vance's plan to tackle high childcare costs might not take into account the looming retirement crisis facing millions of older Americans.

During a discussion with Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative organization Turning Point Action, former President Donald Trump's VP pick Vance addressed the issue of high childcare costs in the US.

It's an issue many parents and families are contending with — a recent report from Bank of America found that the average US couple spends over 30% of their combined wages on childcare costs.

When Kirk asked how Vance planned to address the issue, Vance suggested extended family members step in to relieve the financial burden on parents.


"One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is, maybe grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more, or maybe there's an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more," Vance told Kirk. "If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we're spending on daycare."

Vance clarified his remarks in a post on X on Thursday following criticism of his original comments. He said in the post that "parents or grandparents might not be able to help, but they might want to, and for those families, federal policy should not be forcing one particular family model." He also emphasized that there should be more accessible educational routes for people to get into the childcare field.

A Vance spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Vance has previously spoken about how his mother-in-law took a yearlong sabbatical from her job as a biology professor in California to live with Vance and his wife to take care of their newborn son. Vance noted that their child was born just seven weeks before his wife, who's an attorney, began a judicial clerkship. In that conversation, Vance agreed with his interviewer that taking care of grandchildren is "the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female."

But for many, helping raise grandchildren or a niece or nephew just isn't feasible. For one thing, many older Americans are struggling with economic headwinds as they approach retirement, leaving many of them without the time and financial resources to help with childcare needs. The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that over half of respondents over 65 had incomes of under $30,000 in 2022, leaving them to rely primarily on Social Security. For many Americans that BI has spoken to, that's not enough — leaving some to return to work.

At the same time, some millennial and Gen Z parents have left family "villages" behind for cheaper housing. The changing demographics of the labor market might also mean those family members are already booked. Linda, a 64-year-old retiree, is moving closer to one of her children — but not so she can help take care of anyone. Rather, her kids are part of her safety net; she knows that they'll look out for her.

"I fully see myself working for the next 20-some years — if I have that many left. Whatever years I have left, I will not be enjoying the retirement life in Florida," Linda said.
Lowering the cost of childcare

In his response to Kirk's question, Vance also argued that daycare would be more affordable if states didn't require that childcare workers get a "ridiculous certification that has nothing to do with taking care of kids." He added, "What we need to do is actually empower people to get trained in the skills that they need for the 21st century."

Not many states require childcare workers to have college degrees or certifications. But he might have been referring to a new law in the nation's capital that requires many childcare workers to have a two-year associate degree, among other training. Republicans in Congress have taken issue with DC's law and Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah introduced a bill this summer that would repeal portions of it.

Costs aren't just prohibitive for parents; they're also sky-high for childcare providers, who operate on tiny margins and struggle to pay their workers a living wage. Burdensome government regulations, including land-use laws, are part of why childcare services are so costly to operate. But aside from stripping away some of these rules, childcare providers say they need the government to cut the cost of starting and operating a business.

"In our ideal world, it would cost nothing for providers to go into business — the background checks, the trainings, the licensing would all be cost-free," Laurie Furstenfeld, an attorney at the Berkeley, California-based Child Care Law Center, told Business Insider last year. "The cost of parents would be heavily subsidized or publicly funded."

Childcare centers already faced their own funding cliff when pandemic-era funds ran out, with several telling BI that they couldn't hike tuitions even more — but still needed to try to pay their teachers a living wage with fewer resources.

While Vance has expressed support for an expanded child tax credit, which would help parents pay for growing costs, he skipped a recent vote on a Senate bill to extend the credit. The bill failed after Republicans voted against it. Vance has condemned universal childcare, calling it a subsidy for the affluent and "class war against normal people."

"We try to force or at least subsidize one model on every family in this country," Vance wrote in his clarification on X. "And if you open up kinship and other options for families, you will relieve some pressure on the daycare system in this country."

Are you dealing with tough decisions on childcare, eldercare, or retirement? Share your story with these reporters at asheffey@businessinsider.com, jkaplan@businessinsider.com, and erelman@businessinsider.com.

 AMERIKA

Millions of seniors can't afford their prescription medications: Study

About 4% of seniors can't afford their prescription at all, the study found.

ByDr. Roshan Nebhrajani Bransden

September 5, 2024,

Millions of American seniors are having a hard time affording their prescription medications, a new National Health Statistics report suggests.

The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that approximately 4% of those aged 65 and older can't afford their prescription at all, and more than 3% of them skipped doses, delayed filling a prescription or took less medication than prescribed to cut back on costs.

"Older adults that were food insecure were six times more likely to not get their prescription medication," Robin A. Cohen, study co-author and statistician with the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, said.

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Dr. Lalita Abhyankar, a family medicine physician based in San Francisco, told ABC News she often sees patients struggling to pay for their medications.

One of Abhyankar's patients with diabetes couldn't afford his monthly dose of insulin, so "he would ration out his insulin," she said. Despite being on both Medicaid and Medicare, "the copay was challenging for him to do on a month-to-month basis," she noted.

Senior female pensioner sitting at table reading the medical report and medicine drug prescription.

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Abhyankar has also seen this problem when patients needed an expensive medication because cheaper alternatives haven't worked.

"I've seen them do half a dose or take it once a day instead of the recommended twice or three times a day and then continue to walk around with uncontrolled high blood pressure," Abhyankar said. "That increases their risk of stroke, heart attack, damage to the eyes and kidneys."

She went on, "The downstream effects are going to be that we're going to see more patients in hospitals, and emergency rooms. That puts a huge burden on the healthcare system."

Generally, adults aged 65 and older qualify for universal health care under Medicare. That covers medical needs such as doctors' visits and hospital stays.

Medications aren't automatically included. Older adults must enroll in Medicare Part D, a separate prescription drug coverage plan, or a private insurance plan that helps pay fomedications.

Even when they are covered, most Americans will still owe some amount for copays and premiums. When the expenses pile up, some choose to forego any coverage at all.

Abhyankar said there are ways to reduce the cost of prescriptions including websites such as GoodRx that can offer coupons for customers sometimes at lower prices. Another option is the online discount pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs, which has hundreds of medications available for purchase at lower prices.

Abhyankar also suggested that patients try insurance preferred pharmacy programs, which are pharmacies that have an agreement with an insurance plan to charge less to fill prescriptions.

Last month, the Biden administration announced an agreement with drug companies to lower the price of 10 prescription medications for people with Medicare Part D. The negotiated prices will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Roshan Nebhrajani Bransden, MD, is a family medicine resident physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.