nature-lover
nature-lover's JournalSuspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family in Israeli strike on Lebanon
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/13/suspect-michigan-synagogue-attack-lost-family-lebanonGuardian staff and agency
Fri 13 Mar 2026 09.12 EDT
Last modified on Fri 13 Mar 2026 09.41 EDT
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The armed suspect who drove a vehicle into the hallway of a large Michigan synagogue complex that includes a school had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon just last week, an official said on Friday.
A potential mass-casualty event was averted when security guards already in place at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township on the outskirts of Detroit killed the driver before any harm could come to the synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at the early childhood center there on Thursday afternoon.
Police vehicles outside Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan following vehicle attack
US Jewish communities warn increased security is needed after Michigan attack
Read more
The suspect was later named by the authorities as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, who was born in Lebanon and had become a naturalized US citizen.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.
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A local official in Mashgharah, in central Lebanon, told the Associated Press on Friday that Ghazali’s two brothers and a niece and nephew were killed at their home in the 5 March airstrike just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Ibrahim Ghazali’s wife was seriously wounded and remains in the hospital, the official said.
Great TX driving conditions map from Tx DOT
You can use your location, or the default will give the whole state and you can zoom in.
https://drivetexas.org/
Health insurance carriers request raising ACA premiums by more than 20% on average in Texas
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/21/texas-health-insurance-premiums-aca-tax-credit-expiration/?_bhlid=5e9cc4ef44009d1d24a20a554e0a2cab109ae29bHealth insurers are hiking policy premiums in response to proposed federal cuts and rising costs in various parts of the health care sector.
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Health insurance companies have requested an average premium increase of 24% for Affordable Care Act plans in Texas in 2026, a significant hike that could lead to destabilization in the marketplace and customers opting for less or no coverage.
Last year, the average rate hike across insurance carriers was 3.8%. Data analysis from KFF found that next year’s rate hikes could be the largest increase since 2018, when average premiums went up by 35% in Texas. In 2018, companies factored in Congress’ attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and President Donald Trump signing an executive order ending subsidies to insurers for low-income people. After 2018, average premiums in Texas have never risen by more than 4%.
Nearly 4 million Texans bought health insurance coverage through the ACA marketplace for 2025, a high-water mark in a state that has the highest uninsured rate in the nation. ACA uptake has tripled since 2020, after Congress expanded tax credits to lower ACA users’ monthly premiums.
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More at link
Where is all of the money that we are "saving" from layoffs, canceled grants, and programs going? (nt)
The Big Bill is built on a faulty premise. We don't "need" the tax cuts. A powerful minority "wants" them.
A good immigrant is a deported immigrant. It's the theme of this Repub. administration.
It doesn't matter if they have protected status or have a visa.
"Tariffs On China Set To Rise To 104% After It Misses Trump's Deadline"
Not "missed" but "ignored."
https://www.cnn.com
You miss a dentist appointment. You miss a turn. This wasn't some inconsequential meeting. This deadline was ignored.
"Now they will do anything for us."
From HuffPost Updates: Trump Is Off To A Golf Tournament At His Club After Sending Economy Into Panic Mode
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-presidency-live-updates_n_67e55ccce4b0d5fb5f3d85c1/liveblog_67eef091e4b0e2990bb6300d
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Aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that his punishing global tariffs are "going to make our country very rich."
"Every country is calling us," Trump said. "That’s the beauty of what we do. We put ourselves in the drivers seat. If we would have asked these countries to do us a favor, they would have said no. Now they will do anything for us.”
'Severely Diminished' USAID Sends Disaster Relief Team Of Just 3 People To Myanmar
You have scroll down to find this in a series of updates on HuffPost. I have not seen it elsewhere.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-presidency-live-updates_n_67e55ccce4b0d5fb5f3d85c1
‘Severely Diminished’ USAID Sends Disaster Relief Team Of Just 3 People To Myanmar
Five days after a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake flattened high-rises in Myanmar and Thailand, killing more than 2,000 people, the State Department has dispatched a disaster-response team of just three people to the country, who will distribute $2 million in relief aid.
In the past, USAID, which used to be its own agency before it was gutted, likely illegally, by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and folded into the State Department, would have immediately dispatched Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) to the country to aid in search-and-rescue efforts.
The White House attempted to mobilize a DART team after the earthquake last Friday, but couldn’t, Andrew Natsios, who served as USAID administrator in George W. Bush's administration, told the BBC.
"The problem is they fired most of the 500 people that make up the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, so obviously there are no people [from the bureau] to be on the Dart team to be sent,” Natsios said.
He added that he was shocked Trump’s administration “didn't have the foresight to say 'Okay, let's retain these people'."
Jeremy Konyndyk, a former disaster response lead at USAID, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the U.S. missed the search-and-rescue window in Myanmar entirely as a result.
"It's not a case of worst-practice, it's really a case of no-practice," he said. “It just makes the US look, frankly, kind of weak and irrelevant to most of the other countries that have shown up in force to support the people of Myanmar."
For comparison’s sake, when a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria in 2023, USAID sent 225 people and $185 million.
"The capacity of the U.S. government to provide that kind of assistance right now is severely diminished, and we haven't seen any of it so far,” Sarah Charles, assistant to the administrator of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance under the Biden administration, told NPR.
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