September 13 2024

1 Rent, utilities rose faster than home values for first time in a decade
2 U.S. Cellular Data Usage Soars 33x Since 2013
3 Election Roundup: Harris’ working class problem, no tax on OT, no more debates
4 U.S. Deploys Aircraft, Commandos to West Africa to Combat Militants
5 Ukraine Friday Update: Russia Nearing Strategic City in East
9/12/1993 Israel‑Palestine peace accord signed

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1 Rent, utilities rose faster than home values for first time in a decade

The cost of rent and utilities in 2023 rose faster than home values for the first time in a decade, the latest sign that a distorted housing market has pushed more people into renting. That’s one takeaway from the 2023 American Community Survey, released Thursday by the Census Bureau, which also underscored how different people’s experiences in the housing market can be depending on income and race. From 2011 to 2019, real rent costs rose less than 3 percent every year, the data shows. In 2022, after peaking during the coronavirus pandemic, rent grew 1 percent. But last year, rent rose 3.8 percent, compared with a 1.8 percent rise in inflation-adjusted median home values. The findings are yet another example of how a supercharged rental market is squeezing people who also can’t afford to buy.

Article Source: WaPo

2 U.S. Cellular Data Usage Soars 33x Since 2013

Here’s a fascinating statistic: The amount of data transmitted over cellular phone networks (that doesn’t include Wi-Fi) reached 100 trillion megabytes in the U.S. last year, according to wireless industry trade group the CTIA in a report published on Tuesday. That’s roughly double the level in 2021. In 2013, the amount was 3 trillion.

Article Source: Matin Peers ‘The Information’ Newsletter

3 Election Roundup: Harris’ working class problem, no tax on OT, no more debates

Harris’ working-class support  

the race is still exceedingly tight….and seems likely to remain so. And there’s another part of her game plan—or what should be her game plan—that does not appear to be working out so well. I refer to the need to boost support among the working class, which remains a serious weak spot for the Democrats and Harris. The latest New York Times/Siena poll has Harris trailing Trump among working-class (noncollege) voters by 17 points. That’s identical to Biden’s working-class deficit in the last NYT poll before he dropped out and way worse than Biden’s deficit among these voters in 2020—a mere 4 points. More detailed NYT results reveal that Harris, relative to Biden in 2020, is doing 10 points worse among white working-class voters and 18 points worse among nonwhite working-class voters. The latter is despite considerable improvement for Harris among this demographic since Biden dropped out.  

Trump proposes no tax on OT  

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pitched yet another “no tax on something” proposal, saying Thursday that the federal government shouldn’t tax overtime pay.  His latest promise to appeal to working-class voters comes atop his calls to extend his expiring tax cuts, end taxes on tips, eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, create a deduction for newborn expenses and offer a special tax rate for domestic manufacturers. All told, Trump’s proposed tax cuts exceed $6 trillion over the next decade, risking a significant expansion of already-high federal budget deficits.  

No more debates  

Donald Trump ruled out another debate with Kamala Harris, a day after sending mixed signals following their clash in Philadelphia.

Article Source: Liberal Patriot Substack, WSJ

4 U.S. Deploys Aircraft, Commandos to West Africa to Combat Militants

The U.S. is gradually moving aircraft and commandos into coastal West Africa in an urgent effort to try to stop the march of al Qaeda and Islamic State militants across one of the world’s most volatile regions. American forces were evicted this summer from their regional stronghold in Niger, farther inland, and now the Pentagon is patching together a backup counterinsurgency plan in neighboring countries—refurbishing an airfield in Benin to accommodate American helicopters, stationing Green Berets and surveillance planes in Ivory Coast, and negotiating the return of U.S. commandos to a base they used to occupy in Chad. “Losing Niger means that we’ve lost our ability to directly influence counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in the Sahel,” said retired Maj. Gen. Mark Hicks, former commander of U.S. special-operations forces in Africa, referring to the vast, semidesert band just south of the Sahara. Islamist militants are wreaking havoc across the core of the Sahel—Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger—attacking police and military, stirring local grievances, imposing their harsh version of Islam in occupied villages and causing some 38,000 deaths since 2017, according to the Pentagon’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, which analyzed figures collected by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based, nonprofit monitoring service. Some 200 people were killed in Burkina Faso in a single day in late August, according to the United Nations. The U.N. said suspected members of an al Qaeda umbrella group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, fired on civilians who were digging trenches in a failed effort to protect their town from such attacks.

Article Source: WSJ

5 Ukraine Friday Update: Russia Nearing Strategic City in East

Ed note: I cover the Ukraine war every Friday and don’t give equal coverage to the conflict in Israel, which is also taking a major human toll.   

The war in Ukraine is the largest land war in Europe since the end of World War II in 1945 and is a world historical event. Ukraine has, in many ways, become a proxy world war, with the West, led by the United States, on one side and Russia, along with China, Iran, North Korea and others, on the other. Furthermore, the war and sanctions have strained relationships between the West and the Global South, with China emerging as a major beneficiary of the conflict. I believe it will ultimately be resolved in the coming years, one way or another. In my view, the most likely outcome is a frozen conflict, similar to the situation between North and South Korea, where no formal peace treaty has been signed since the 1950s. If Western powers, led by the United States, decide to stop funding Ukraine, the war will come to an end.  

On the other hand, the conflict in Israel has roots stretching back to biblical times, beginning with Abraham in the Old Testament. It’s a clash of civilizations that has been ongoing since Israel gained independence in 1948, and I believe it will continue through our lifetimes. Any talk of a lasting ceasefire seems unlikely to me. Given the demographic shifts and deep religious divisions in the region, I don’t see a peaceful resolution to the Israeli conflict. I hope I am wrong. 

That’s why I devote more of my coverage to a war I believe can be solved, rather than to a war I believe cannot be.  

State of the war  

Russia is closing in on a key city in Ukraine’s East in one of the fastest advances for its military since the early days of the war. If Russia captures the city, Pokrovsk, it would gain a big strategic advantage in seizing the rest of the Donbas region. Pokrovsk is at the center of many of the rail and road lines for the whole of the Donbas. A successful Russian assault would cut the main supply lines for troops in the remaining Ukrainian strongholds across the region, and would position Moscow’s forces to menace Ukrainian positions to the south of the city. The challenges are daunting for Ukraine. At times in August, its troops were falling back more than a mile a day. Two dense lines of Ukrainian fortifications remain between the frontline and the city, with anti-tank ditches to slow advancing Russian vehicles and dozens of circular trenches to protect infantry and mortar units.   

Summer offensives  

This summer, Russia and Ukraine dedicated their freshest military resources to seizing chunks of each other’s territory rather than defending their own. Ukraine’s Aug. 6 thrust into Kursk took Russia by surprise, boosting Ukraine’s morale and showing its backers in the West that it was still in the fight. But on the main battlefields in the east, Russia is in the ascendancy. There, Russia is targeting two main gains that would give its forces a significant advantage: Pokrovsk, a logistics hub for Ukraine’s forces in the east, and Chasiv Yar, a high point in the area.   

Russia launches counterattack in Kursk  

Russian forces are counterattacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, over a month after Ukraine captured a large area. Russia's more experienced combat units have reportedly reclaimed several settlements in the past 48 hours, according to the Institute for the Study of War. In response, Ukrainian forces have launched new attacks. The loss of Kursk territory would be a blow to Kyiv, which had hoped to disrupt Russian logistics.   

China directly supporting Russia in Ukraine, in return for submarine, aeronautic and missile technologies   

The US has accused China of providing Russia with direct support for its “war machine” for the first time, as part of an intensified campaign to urge Europe to join Washington in ratcheting up pressure on Beijing.  the Chinese support for Russia was being repaid by Moscow helping Beijing develop submarine, aeronautic and missile technologies in exchange for China’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia’s deepening sharing of military knowhow in areas such as stealth and surveillance would have a “negative and concerning impact” on the security of the US and its allies   

Uranium  

Kazatomprom’s chief executive has warned that Russia’s war on Ukraine is making it harder for the world’s largest uranium producer to keep supplying the west as the gravitational pull towards Moscow and Beijing grows stronger. Meirzhan Yussupov, chief of the Kazakh state miner, said sanctions caused by the war had created obstacles to supplying western utilities. Kazakhstan produces 43 per cent of the world’s uranium, equivalent to the market share that the Opec cartel has over oil.

Article Source: NYT, WSJ, Cipher Brief, FT

9/12/1993 Israel‑Palestine peace accord signed

Sources

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/09/12/rent-housing-cost-acs/

2. Matin Peers ‘The Information’ Newsletter

3. https://open.substack.com/pub/theliberalpatriot/p/harris-working-class-problem?r=d9vo5&utm_medium=ios
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/next-up-in-trumps-no-tax-zone-overtime-pay-43a911b8?st=FAYNW9&reflink=article_copyURL_share
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/donald-trump-says-he-wont-do-another-debate-with-kamala-harris-c7d8e428?st=Da4BWS&reflink=article_copyURL_share

4. https://www.wsj.com/world/africa/u-s-moves-aircraft-commandos-into-west-africa-in-fight-against-islamist-militants-0b15c41b?st=twdoo4inmb1csjr&reflink=article_copyURL_share

5. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/11/world/europe/russia-pokrovsk-advance.html?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20240911&instance_id=134038&nl=morning-briefing:-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=177513&te=1&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1; https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-ukraine-war-maps-pokrovsk-chasiv-yar-310b001b?st=joZZDi&reflink=article_copyURL_share; Cipher Brief; https://on.ft.com/4efbiKk; https://on.ft.com/47jW9Fe