Author: Reporter

Tens of millions of older Americans will see a modest increase in benefits this January when a new cost-of-living adjustment is added to Social Security payments. The 3.2% raise is intended to help meet higher prices for food, fuel, and other goods and services. The average recipient will see an increase of about $54 per month, according to government estimates. That is a smaller percentage than last year, because consumer prices have eased, and the COLA is tied to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. Still, Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the...

The flu season in the U.S. is getting worse but it is too soon to tell how much holiday gatherings contributed to a likely spike in illnesses. New government data, posted on January 5 for the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s, showed 38 states with high or very high levels for respiratory illnesses with fever, cough, and other symptoms. That was up from 31 states the week before. The measure likely includes people with COVID-19, RSV, and other winter viruses, and not just flu. But flu seems to be increasing most dramatically, according to the Centers for...

As Taiwan prepared to hold elections for its president and legislature, China renewed its threat to use military force to annex the self-governing island democracy it falsely claims as its own territory. Defense Ministry spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian told reporters at a monthly briefing in late December that China’s armed forces would “as always take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard our national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Taiwan’s 23 million people overwhelmingly favor maintaining the island’s de-facto independent status, leaving the Jan. 13 polls to be decided largely by concerns over housing prices, health care, employment and education. China...

There has been no shortage of tough news for China’s economy, as some of the world’s biggest brands consider or take action to shift manufacturing to friendlier shores. The shift comes at a time of unease about security controls, protectionism, and wobbly relations between Beijing and Washington. Count Adidas, Apple, and Samsung among those companies looking elsewhere. But as a tumultuous 2023 for the Chinese economy came to a close, there was at least one bright spot for Beijing with foreign investment: American fast-food chains have decided a market of 1.4 billion people is simply too delicious to pass...

Courting Black voters he needs to win reelection, President Joe Biden on January 8 denounced the “poison” of White Supremacy in America, declaring at the site of a deadly racist church shooting in South Carolina that such ideology has no place in America, “not today, tomorrow or ever.” President Biden spoke from the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church, where in 2015 nine Black parishioners were shot to death by the White stranger they had invited to join their Bible study. The Democratic president’s speech followed his blunt remarks on the eve of the anniversary of the January 6,...