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Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Car theft crisis plagues Canadians (BBC) Logan LaFarniere woke up one October morning in 2022 to an empty driveway. His brand new Ram Rebel truck was missing. His security camera captured two hooded men breaking into the pickup in the dead of night outside of his Milton, Ontario home, and driving it away with ease. A few months later, that very same truck appeared on a website of vehicles for sale in Ghana, an ocean and some 8,500km (5,300m) away. A pandemic-related global car shortage increased demand for both new and used vehicles, leading to a spike in car theft. Canada is feeling that problem acutely. In 2022, more than 105,000 cars were stolen in Canada—about one car every five minutes. Among the victims was Canada’s very own federal justice minister, whose government-issued Toyota Highlander XLE was taken twice by thieves.

Beryl Leaves Millions Without Power in Houston (NYT) A day after Tropical Storm Beryl struck Houston with deadly force, flooding roads and highways and killing at least four people, officials in Texas were struggling to restore power for millions of residents as hot weather returned to the region. The storm, which made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane around 4 a.m. on Monday, weakened as it passed through the sprawling city and its suburbs. But the force of its winds still left Houston residents reeling for the second time in two months after a deadly system of thunderstorms crashed through the city in May. The storm had sustained winds of 65 m.p.h. as it passed through Houston but also produced damaging, hurricane-force wind gusts above 80 m.p.h. in and around the city. That was enough to rip branches and topple trees across the city. Beryl brought heavy rains to Houston. Floodwaters filled many of the city’s drainage bayous to the top of their banks and, in some cases, overtopped them. Elsewhere, sections of highways and underpasses filled with water. Officials said at least 47 people had to be rescued from high water. Once the storm moved on, the biggest issue for Houston residents became the widespread lack of power. The main provider, CenterPoint Energy, said on Monday that more than 2 million customers were without electricity and officials did not immediately provide a timeline for when people could expect to get power back.

Tropical Storm Beryl Spawned a Symphony of Toads (NYT) Amid the cacophony of pelting rain, exploding fuse boxes and cracking tree limbs, another sound followed Tropical Storm Beryl across the Houston area on Monday: The mating call of the male Gulf Coast toad. This species of toad is rotund, about the size of a tangerine, and speckled brown with a vanilla-colored belly. But you don’t see them as often as you hear them. On summer nights around Houston, they chime in a competitive chorus. But it’s unusual to hear them during the day. Beryl seems to have changed that, though. As the storm crossed the metro area on Monday morning, the call of the toads echoed from flooded street corners.

Insurers in the Medicare Advantage program pocketed $50 billion making questionable diagnoses that triggered extra taxpayer-funded payments. (WSJ) Some diagnoses were outright wrong, including for potentially deadly illnesses for which patients received no subsequent care, as well as for conditions people couldn’t possibly have, a WSJ analysis of Medicare records found. Often, neither patients nor their doctors knew about the diagnoses. Medicare Advantage, in which private insurers oversee Medicare benefits, was designed to provide healthcare more economically, but instead it added tens of billions of dollars in costs, researchers and some government officials have said. One reason is that insurers can add diagnoses to ones that patients’ own doctors submit. Medicare gave insurers that option so they could catch conditions that doctors neglected to record.

Pamplona’s 2024 running of the bulls (New York Post/Sky News) The Pamplona Bull Run 2024 continues the tradition of one of Spain’s most exhilarating and historic events. Held from July 6 to 14 as part of the San Fermín Festival, the bull run attracts thousands of thrill-seekers from around the globe. Every morning at 8 a.m., six bulls are set loose from their corral to charge through the narrow streets of the old town towards the bullring. Participants risk their safety by sprinting ahead of the bulls, aiming to stay close, creating an electrifying and perilous display that has enthralled spectators for decades. Six people were injured on the first day of the annual bull run. The festival was made famous for many English speakers by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.”

Jean-Luc Melenchon: Star of France’s hard-left poses problem for election victors (Reuters) France’s left has a Jean-Luc Mélenchon problem. The towering firebrand of France’s hard-left, Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) party won the most seats of the leftist alliance that scored a shock victory over the far right in Sunday’s snap legislative election. His party’s top position gives him a credible claim to be France’s next prime minister. But his hopes of dragging France sharply leftward appear dead after mainstream party chiefs quickly ruled out forming a coalition with a tax-and-spend, pro-Gaza figure who many in France view as an antisemitic radical. Melenchon, who denies accusations of antisemitism, “is the most divisive figure within the NFP,” said Socialist leader Olivier Faure, referring to the New Popular Front (NFP) leftist alliance. Other members of the NFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, were even more frank. “Melenchon is a problem,” a Green party lawmaker told Reuters.

Russia Strikes Children’s Hospital in Deadly Barrage Across Ukraine (NYT) Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital was destroyed by a Russian missile on Monday, shaking Kyiv, the capital, with images of bloodied and injured children, and sending hundreds racing to the scene to help clear twisted metal and smashed concrete in a desperate search for survivors. The hospital strike was part of a barrage of bombings by Moscow across the country, including one of its deadliest assaults on Kyiv since the first months of the war. At least 38 people were killed across the country, including 27 in Kyiv. More than 100 people were injured. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 30 out of the 38 missiles launched by Russia during the attack, which began in the midmorning.

Myanmar’s ethnic rebels say they captured an airport in a new setback for the military government (AP) One of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority groups battling the military government said it captured an airport serving the country’s top world-class beach resort, marking the first time resistance forces have seized such a facility. Residents of the area in the southern part of the western state of Rakhine, along with local media, also reported the seizure of Thandwe Airport, also known as Ma Zin Airport, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. It’s the latest major setback for the military government that took power in 2021 after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Armed resistance to military rule is taking place in much of the country, led by pro-democracy militants as well as guerrilla groups affiliated with ethnic minorities.

The Yen Is Plunging. So Is Japan’s Defense Budget. (NYT) The yen’s collapse this year to a nearly four-decade low is undermining Japan’s plans for its largest military buildup in postwar history. The government has slashed orders for aircraft, and officials warn that further cuts may be imminent. Japan buys much of its military equipment from American companies, in transactions done in dollars. The government’s purchasing power has been drastically eroded by the yen’s diminishing value. Japan’s currency headache comes at a critical juncture. The country’s large boost in military spending was intended to fortify defenses as Tokyo confronts mounting missile threats from North Korea and other challenges posed by China, including fears of a potential China-Taiwan conflict.

Rescuers search for dozens buried by an Indonesian landslide that killed at least 23 people (AP) Rescue workers dug through tons of mud and rubble on Tuesday as they searched for dozens of missing people after a landslide hit an unauthorized gold mining area on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 23 people. More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in the remote and hilly village of Bone Bolango when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps.

A departing Israeli general condemns violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank (NYT) Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuks, the outgoing chief of Israel’s Central Command, on Monday condemned rising “nationalist crime” among Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and criticized the Israeli government for efforts to financially cripple the Palestinian Authority, which administers some areas of the occupied West Bank. At a departure ceremony, he said that Israel’s security relied on a “strong and functioning” Palestinian Authority and expressed dismay over the settler violence in the territory, which is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians. An extremist minority, he said, was undermining Israel’s reputation internationally. “That, to me, is not Judaism,” he added, “at least not the one I was raised upon in my father’s and mother’s home. That is not the way of the Torah.”

House keys carry symbolic weight for Gaza families repeatedly displaced by war (AP) On his key chain, Hassan Nofal keeps the keys to two homes. One is to the house of his grandparents in what is now southern Israel, which he says his family was driven out of by Israeli forces in 1948 and to which they’ve never been able to return. The other is to Nofal’s house in northern Gaza that he had to flee last year after Israel launched its campaign of bombardment and offensives in the territory. Over the nearly nine months since, Nofal and his family have been uprooted four times, driven back and forth across the Gaza Strip to escape the onslaught. Nofal said he is determined to make sure his key doesn’t become a keepsake like his grandparents’. Israel’s assault in Gaza has driven some 1.9 million of the territory’s pre-war population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Most of them have been uprooted repeatedly since then, fleeing over and over across the length of the strip to escape a series of ground offensives. Each time has meant a wrenching move to a new location and a series of crowded, temporary shelters. Along the way, families have struggled to stay together and keep a few possessions. In each new site, they must find new sources of food, water and medical treatment.

3,013,413 (WSJ) That’s the number of people TSA said it screened Sunday—a new record and the first time the total of daily travelers topped three million. In recent weeks, cheaper flights, a stronger dollar and younger people eager to vacation have helped fuel some of the busiest air-travel days ever.

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