June 26 2024
Learning and Covid; cybercrime; Democratic proxy primary; trans surgery; Afrighanistan
FLASH Former Dutch PM Mark Rutte named new NATO head
1 Covid education relief money effect modest, ending: reports
2 Cybercrime up 3x from 2019: FBI
3 ELECTION 2024 In intraparty proxy fight, progressive ’Squad’ member loses primary in deep blue NY
4 CULTURE WARS Biden Administration pressured international group for more liberal guidelines on trans surgery
5 Islamic jihadist terrorism in Africa up 10x: US General, AFRICOM
6/26/1974 Pack of chewing gum becomes first-ever item scanned with a UPC barcode
Seen at KS Cosmosphere
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
FLASH Former Dutch PM Mark Rutte named new NATO head
Article Source: NYT
1 Covid education relief money effect modest, ending: reports
The federal government sent nearly $200 billion to U.S. schools in the past few years to help address Covid-era learning challenges. Now the first studies are out showing what the money accomplished—and hinting at what could happen when it goes away this fall. The money helped students gain some academic ground and made the biggest difference for the nation’s poorest schools, which received the most money, according to two studies released Wednesday. Schools spent on summer programming, tutoring, additional staff, and building upgrades, among other things. But the overall impact of the federal money was modest, and the remaining dollars won’t be enough to get students back to where they were before the pandemic, the researchers projected. The findings come as the money is running out and some schools are cutting academic-recovery programs.
Article Source: WSJ
2 Cybercrime up 3x from 2019: FBI
In April, the FBI released its annual Internet Crime Report, evaluating all complaints logged via its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). According to the Bureau's analysis, losses connected to cybercrime complaints were $12.5 billion in 2023, up $2 billion year-over-year and more than triple the amount recorded in 2019 despite the number of complaints less than doubling compared to four years prior. As our chart based on data provided in the report shows, reported cybercrime losses increased significantly from 2021 onwards.
Most funds were lost due to investment fraud and hacked business email addresses. These two attack vectors were connected to around 60 percent of all money reported stolen. Although these figures are already substantial, the actual numbers may be much higher due to the FBI only being able to analyze cases reported via its own platform. The data also shows a clear bias in geographical distribution: 521,652 complaints were filed from the United States and 288,355 from the United Kingdom. Zooming in on U.S. cases, most complaints originated in California, Texas and Florida. The former also ranked first in terms of money lost with $2.1 billion or 17 percent of the reported worldwide total. Apart from the U.S. and the UK, the nations with the highest complaint prevalences were Canada (6,601), India (3,405) and Nigeria (1,779).
Article Source: Statistica
3 ELECTION 2024 In intraparty proxy fight, progressive ’Squad’ member loses primary in deep blue NY
Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, one of Congress’s most outspoken progressives, suffered a stinging primary defeat on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, unable to overcome a record-shattering campaign from pro-Israel groups and a slate of self-inflicted blunders. Mr. Bowman was defeated by George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, in a race that became the year’s ugliest intraparty brawl and the most expensive House primary in history. It began last fall when Mr. Bowman stepped forward as one of the leading critics of how Israelis were carrying out their war with Hamas. But the contest grew into a broader proxy fight around the future of the Democratic Party, exposing painful fractures over race, class and ideology in a diverse district that includes parts of Westchester County and the Bronx.
A super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby, dumped $15 million into defeating him, more than any outside group has ever spent on a House race.
The result was not close. With 82 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Latimer was winning 60 percent to 40 percent.
Article Source: NYT
4 CULTURE WARS Biden Administration pressured international group for more liberal guidelines on trans surgery
Health officials in the Biden administration pressed an international group of medical experts to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries from guidelines for care of transgender minors, according to newly unsealed court documents. Age minimums, officials feared, could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments. Email excerpts from members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health recount how staff for Adm. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services and herself a transgender woman, urged them to drop the proposed limits from the group’s guidelines and apparently succeeded. If and when teenagers should be allowed to undergo transgender treatments and surgeries has become a raging debate within the political world. Opponents say teenagers are too young to make such decisions, but supporters including an array of medical experts posit that young people with gender dysphoria face depression and worsening distress if their issues go unaddressed. In the United States, setting age limits was controversial from the start. The draft guidelines, released in late 2021, recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormonal treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies.
The international expert group ultimately removed the age minimums in its eighth edition of the standards of care, released in September 2022. The guidelines reflected the first update in a decade and were the first version of the standards to include a dedicated chapter on medical treatment of transgender adolescents.
Article Source: NYT
5 Islamic jihadist terrorism in Africa up 10x: US General, AFRICOM
The number of Islamic jihadist terrorists in Africa has increased tenfold, the head of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has told Fox News Digital. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, commander of AFRICOM, sat down on Sunday for an exclusive virtual interview with Fox News Digital ahead of this week’s African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Gaborone, Botswana.  Langley covered, in a wide-ranging interview, the threats from China, Russia, and Iran, and gave insight into an apparent shift in U.S. military policy, particularly in West Africa, following Niger’s order that 1,000 U.S. personnel must leave. On Islamic terror, the general said, "we've been monitoring and identifying indications and warnings for a number of years. Just for statistics, back in 2008 Islamic jihadists on the global scene, only 4% was on the African continent. Now that number is up to 40%. So, in executing AFRICOM's mission of being able to provide indications and warnings, monitor and respond, is all for protection of the homeland."
Article Source: Fox News
6/26/1974 Pack of chewing gum becomes first-ever item scanned with a UPC barcode
Seen at KS Cosmosphere
Sources
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/world/europe/mark-rutte-nato-secretary-general.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
2. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/school-covid-aid-students-learning-impact-45ead82a?st=1a1avitndjdnl7n&reflink=article_copyURL_share
3. https://www.statista.com/chart/32341/worldwide-reported-losses-connected-to-cybercrime/
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/nyregion/bowman-latimer-house-new-york.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/health/transgender-minors-surgeries.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
6. https://www.foxnews.com/world/top-us-general-says-islamic-jihadist-terrorism-in-africa-has-soared-tenfold-over-26-years
Thanks for reading!
