Category: ESTA News

The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 12th that the United Arab Emirates (WP) reported on the 12th that a report by the US intelligence agency revealed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had engaged in various activities to intervene in US politics to induce US foreign policy favorable to the country.

The WP briefed senior government officials in recent weeks on a report by the National Intelligence Commission (NIC) under the National Intelligence Service (DNI) on the legal and illegal activities of the UAE, a Middle Eastern oil-rich country, and US ally, to interfere in US politics. said it did.

The report is noteworthy for its focus on friendly countries rather than adversaries, such as Russia, China, and Iran.

Three sources with access to the report said the UAE activities included in the report included both legal and illegal attempts to steer US foreign policy in their favor.

They said the UAE had exploited vulnerabilities in the US government system, such as its reliance on donations, its vulnerability to powerful lobbying firms, and its lax enforcement of freedom of information laws to prevent foreign government interference, in various political engagements.

The UAE, with a population of 9 million, is an Islamic union kingdom that includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai and is one of the United States’ representative allies. There is a US Air Force base in the country, where 5,000 US troops are stationed, and since 2012, it has established itself as the third largest arms importer to the US and has built a strong military power of its own.

The U.S. has decided to sell high-tech military equipment to the UAE, such as MQ-9 drones and advanced F-35 fighter jets, which the U.S. has been reluctant to export for fear of undermining Israel’s military superiority in recent years making ties between to the two countries stronger.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the UAE has spent more than $150 million on lobbyists since 2016 and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to American universities and think tanks to produce policy documents favorable to the country.

A member of Congress who read the report said, “This report shows how American democracy is being distorted by foreign money, and this should serve as a wake-up call.”

“I am proud of the UAE’s influence and good reputation in the United States,” said Yusuf Al-Otayba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, when asked about the report.

“The friendly relationship between the two countries is the product of decades of close cooperation and effective diplomacy,” he added.

A study has found that there is a high possibility that the largest flood risk in 100 years is likely to occur in Los Angeles and Southern California because of climate change. Most Southern California residents think of a large earthquake as the most dangerous natural disaster to come, but it is pointed out that flood risk must also be prepared.

A recent study conducted by UC Irvine University predicted that flooding caused by a storm that occurs once every 100 years will cost the lives and property of people living in the low-lying coastal areas of Los Angeles.

Researchers at UC Irvine analyzed the data and found that about 874,000 people and up to $108 billion in homes and real estate from the southern Santa Monica Mountains to Long Beach would be directly affected by flooding.

The federal disaster agency designated the 17-mile stretch of lowland from Pico Rivera to Long Beach a few decades ago as a ‘special flood hazard area’ with a high risk of flooding during El Niño storms unless the aging waterway system is improved. did.

A study published earlier by UCLA also predicted that megaton-scale flooding is likely to ravage Southern California in the future. The flood was named ‘ArkStorm’, and like a great earthquake, the timing is unknown, so it is also called ‘the other Big One’. The report warned that the damage from the ark storm would be unimaginable compared to the relatively localized damage of the Big One.

The report points out that the impact of climate change will result in more rain than snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, causing a two to fourfold increase in runoff in most rivers in California. As a result, most of Southern California’s major highways will collapse or be destroyed, and low-lying coastal megacities including Los Angeles and San Diego will be flooded, the report added.

The last such deluge in California was in 1862. At the time, a 30-inch water bomb fell on Northern California for a month, flooding San Francisco and Sacramento.

Experts urged the city to establish a city red-gull management system in preparation for the coming huge flood, and to comprehensively manage storage facilities such as dams, rivers, and sewage pipes and drainage facilities in the city. He also explained that residents should be informed of the dangers of flooding and educated to use limited water resources efficiently.

Home sales in Seattle have plummeted due to mortgage interest rates that have more than doubled this year alone, making it more difficult to sell.

From the point of view of homeowners, as prices continue to fall, they are focusing on holding on to their homes, while those wishing to buy a home have greatly reduced their purchasing power due to high mortgage interest rates and are waiting for house prices to fall further.

According to NWMLS, a Northwest American comprehensive real estate listing company on the 8th, pending sales, which refers to the stage in which inspections and loans are being pursued after a housing transaction agreement between a seller and a buyer in King County for the month of October, has plummeted by a whopping 38% compared to a year ago.

As a result, it was found that the period for which houses are put on the market and sold is significantly increasing.

According to Redfin, the period for median-priced homes in Seattle to be on the market until September is 17 days, according to Redfin.

In the case of Bellevue, where house prices are relatively high, the deadline for a listed house to go to a pending sale was 6 days in September last year, but this year it increased by 18 days to 24. In Tacoma, it took 7 days last year but 16 days this year. It was analyzed that it would take 23 days.

According to NWMLS, when looking at the situation of housing sales that were finalized in October after going through pending sales, the number of sales in Seattle fell by 44.8% compared to a year ago, and in the East Side area such as Bellevue, 33.6% compared to a year ago. decreased.

North King County experienced a sharp decline of 45.3%, Southwest King County 47.3% and Southeast King County 40%. In other words, housing sales fell to half the level of last year.

Amid extremely sluggish trading, the King County median price in October rose by surprise.

The median transaction price in King County in October was $903,000, which is slightly higher than $877,000 in September, but experts say that it is meaningless because there are so few transactions.

Home prices in King County have fallen by an average of 10% since May.

The median sale price of a home in King County in October is 10% higher than it was a year ago. However, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap counties are 1-5% more expensive than in the same period last year, so they are expected to drop to similar levels soon.

Last month, the median selling price in Snohomish County was $730,000, Pierce County $535,000 and Kitsap County $513,250.

The White House responded to the Fed’s rate hike on the 2nd as “an economy that benefits workers’ families with stable and steady growth and low inflation.”

“The Fed is an independent institution, and we respect that independence,” White House press secretary Carine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.

“The Fed action has helped reduce inflation,” he said. “As mortgage rates rise, demand in the housing market will continue to subside and inventories will rise, which will have the effect of lowering home price inflation.”

“This is a transition to the more stable and steady growth that the White House economics team and I and the President (Joe Biden) have been talking about,” he added.

The White House’s position seems to be to give the impression that inflation, the biggest issue in the midterm elections scheduled for the 8th, is being caught.

As voters, tired of high inflation, criticize the Biden administration’s economic situation, there are speculations that the Democrats could vote for the House as well as the Senate.

In Brazil and Washington, and perhaps soon in Paris, the same mechanisms that shake democracy are at work. Barely time to rejoice in the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday in Brazil that we must worry, if we look to the north, of these midterms which are fast approaching in the United States and which are announced high risk for Joe Biden. These mid-term elections in the House of Representatives and the Senate (for a third of the seats) are rarely favourable to the tenant of the White House.

But this time, Democratic strongholds long considered impregnable (in New York, Washington, or Oregon, for example) are within earshot of Republicans. Faced with this risk, Joe Biden has raised his voice in recent days, Barack Obama has rolled up his sleeves. In vain. However, the American president does not have to be ashamed of his record. But whatever. It also matters that the threats, extreme in the aftermath of the presidential election with the invasion of the Capitol, continue to undermine American democracy.

To the point of threatening her. The attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband at her home by a far-right activist has brutally exposed the violence of the political climate for all to see. This democratic cancer, too rooted in the United States for Biden to have been able to reconcile the two camps in two years, is also plaguing Brazil. Lula’s narrow victory should not hide this reality. A very natural relief greeted his victory.

But the country, like the United States, is deeply fractured. The same mechanisms – fake news, conspiracy… – are at work there. And Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to quickly concede defeat is a further sign of concern. Should he belatedly admit it, it wouldn’t change much. The survival of democracy presupposes a minimum of consensus on the truth of the facts. This minimum is breached in the two largest democracies on the American continent.

It is in Europe (England, Hungary, etc.). It begins to be in France. We would be wrong to believe ourselves stronger or smarter than others.

A 19-year-old graduate of St. Louis High School was shot and killed by police after the shooter left a post describing himself as a loner, it has been found.

Louis, Missouri police said on the 25th that they had found a note left by shooter Orlando Harris prior to the attack.

“I don’t have any friends or family, I’ve never had a girlfriend, I’ve never had a social life,” Harris wrote in the memo.

Police Chief Michael Sack said at a briefing, “It is possible that Harris may have had significant feelings of anger towards others living in healthy relationships.”

After graduating from an art high school in St. Louis last year, Harris went to his alma mater the day before and opened fire and was shot and killed in a confrontation with police.

Two people, a teacher in their 60s and a girl in their teens, were killed in the shooting, and seven students were injured.

Police said Harris was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and more than 600 rounds of bullets at the time of the shooting.

The AR-15 series rifle is a weapon that appears frequently in mass shootings in the United States.

In May 2022, 18-year-old Salverdore Ramos used the rifle in the shooting at Uvaldie Elementary School in Texas, which claimed the lives of 21 people.

Attention has once again been drawn to the severity of the penalties for four former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd, a black man that sparked mass racism protests and riots in the United States in 2020.

According to the Associated Press and USA Today on the 25th, the trial of former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander King (29) and Tu Tao (36), who were indicted by state prosecutors in connection with the death of Floyd, was selected by a jury at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis the day before. It was supposed to start with the work, but the schedule was abruptly canceled when Kung pleaded guilty, and Tao abandoned the jury trial.

King pleaded guilty to negotiating with the prosecution through his defense counsel and admitted to the charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter on condition that he was released from the charge of aiding and aiding in second-degree murder. did.

Before King, former police officer Thomas Lane, 39, also pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter last month and was sentenced to three years in prison.

However, former police officer Tao refused to negotiate with the prosecution and decided to go to trial, saying, “To admit guilt is to make a false confession and it is a sin.”

However, he agreed to give up the trial by the jury and receive a single trial by the judge, in which the judge decides whether he is guilty or not based on the testimony of the accused and the evidence agreed by both the prosecution and the accused.

Tao submits the relevant materials before the 17th of the next month, and the judge in charge decides within 90 days.

The Associated Press reported that Tao could face up to 12 years and 6 months in prison if found guilty of aiding and aiding in second-degree murder.

National Public Radio (NPR) predicted that if Tao was found guilty only on the charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, he would face a four-year prison sentence. did.

Derek Chauvin, 46, a senior police officer who suffocated by kneeling for more than nine minutes in the process of arresting Floyd, was charged with second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and third-degree murder by a Hennepin County jury in April last year. Both were convicted and sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison two months later. However, he has appealed the ruling.

Separately, all four officers have also been charged by federal prosecutors for violating federal civil rights laws.

Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison in a federal court in Minnesota in July and sent to a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.

He was subsequently found guilty of violating the constitutional rights of King, Tao and Raindo Floyd, and was sentenced to three years, three years and six months, and two and a half years in prison in a federal court in July, respectively.

Tao began serving his life in Lexington Penitentiary in Kentucky earlier this month, NPR added.

The court allowed all four officers to serve sentences in both state and federal courts simultaneously.

U.S. universities have not fully overcome the shock of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), a study shows.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 20th that, citing the non-profit National Center for Student Information Processing Research (NSCRC), the number of enrolled students at all U.S. universities this year decreased by 1.1% compared to a year ago.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, the total number of students decreased by 4%, including a 16.1% drop in the number of new students.

The fact that classes were not held normally due to quarantine and the fear of infection on campus were analyzed as the reasons for the decrease in the number of students.

Another reason was cited as the reason for the increase in the number of households whose college tuition was burdensome due to the economic blow caused by COVID-19.

The decline in enrollment is more pronounced at lower-middle-ranking universities in the Midwest or Northeast of the United States.

Universities classified as prestigious universities did not suffer much damage.

Online colleges and black colleges have increased the number of enrolled students.

The number of enrolled students at online universities increased by 3.2% compared to a year ago. It was found that 18–20-year-olds actively enroll in online universities.

At Western Governors University, where 200,000 students take online courses, 18–24-year-olds accounted for only 6% of students five years ago, but this year it has risen to 11%.

Scott Persifer, president of Western Governors University, said that the practicality of getting a lot out of cheap tuition has increased young people’s interest in online colleges.

There are no clinics to treat long COVID cases in central Florida in the United States, meaning patients are forced to resign themselves to a long road to COVID-19 clinics around the state and even longer lines, Spectrum News reported Sunday. “Long COVID clinics, far away, like ours, are overflowing with patients,” said Irene Estores, a female doctor who runs a long COVID clinic in that state.

“Patients have to wait,” she said. “For some, arriving at a long-running COVID clinic comes only after repeated attempts to find treatment elsewhere have failed,” according to the outlet. Many long-term COVID patients struggle to maintain their sanity, Spectrum News says.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that rates of depression, anxiety, and even suicide were higher among COVID-19 survivors than the rest of the world. population. An estimated 7.5% of adults in the United States suffer from post-COVID illnesses lasting longer than three months. Despite the great public interest in this issue, the effectiveness of treatments for these disorders varies from person to person, and at the same time, treatments are not widely available, adds Spectrum News.

Washington state hospitals were found to be operating in record deficits in the second quarter following the first quarter of this year.

Kathy Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA), said the biggest concern is that hospital revenues are running into a large deficit that can’t be afforded, and that some residents may lose access to care.

Washington state hospitals posted a net loss of $1.8 billion in the first half of this year, including $929 million in the first quarter and $820 million in the second quarter, according to a financial survey report released by the WSHA.

Sauer said that hospitals survived 2020-2021 thanks to the federal government’s support for the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, he explained that the excessive wages of ‘travel nurses’, who were hired as ‘tinkers’, were a factor driving the deficit.

Washington state hospitals spent 11% more on drugs and labor than in the first half of 2021. Spending on staff salaries increased by 9% and travel nurses’ wages increased by a whopping 235%. Of the 85 hospitals surveyed, 75 said they spent more than they earned, and more than half said they would run out of money by the end of 2023 if the deficit continues current trends.

The situation is similar for individual hospital systems. UW Medical Center (Seattle) and Valley Medical Center (Renton) affiliated with the University of Washington have budgeted deficits for next year. Harborview Medical Center, the only first-class trauma hospital in Washington state, will avoid a deficit next year, but it will be difficult to raise a corresponding medical performance, an official said.

The Tacoma-based multi-care hospital system has recorded a deficit of $250 million so far this year ($22 million in August alone), and the Overlake Hospital in Bellevue and Cascade Medical Center in Levenworth (Germany) also recorded a monthly deficit. It is being recorded, the WSHA said. Overlake recently closed an urgent care center.