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Saquon Barkley ninth player with 2,000-yard rushing season
Half of Americans who haven’t retired yet expect to rely on Social Security benefits, but more than 70% of them are concerned that the retirement benefits they’ve been promised won’t be there for them, a new Bankrate survey showed. More than three-quarters of current retirees rely on Social Security to pay necessary expenses, Bankrate found. A concerning deadline is looming for many Americans: The Social Security trust fund is projected to be exhausted in 2033. But the trust fund isn’t what many Americans think it is, one expert said. Misunderstandings about the nature of Social Security are a big reason the program’s solvency remains an ongoing problem, said Romina Boccia of the Cato Institute. “Perhaps the best way to explain what the Social Security trust fund is, is by explaining what it isn’t,” Boccia said. “And that is a trust fund.” Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian-leaning think tank, said the Social Security trust fund is more of a political construct than a true repository of savings. The main source of income for Social Security is payroll taxes on working Americans, which support retirees. Until 2010, workers paid more in Social Security taxes than what the federal government paid out in benefits, Boccia said. Since then, Social Security has borrowed more than $1 trillion to bridge the gap. The government is expected to borrow another $4 trillion to make up the Social Security deficit between now and 2033. The Social Security Administration’s legal borrowing authority will run out in 2033. That’s what people think of as the trust fund becoming exhausted. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any money for retirees in 2034. But it does mean retirees can only be paid based on what’s currently coming in—mainly payroll taxes—which would be the equivalent of a roughly 20% across-the-board cut in benefits. Congress is likely to act before then, but the problem isn’t going to get easier to solve. “Those deficits are accelerating,” Boccia said. When Social Security collected more money than it needed to provide benefits, as it did before 2010, the government spent the surplus elsewhere, Boccia said. Now, the trust fund is essentially a “piggy bank that holds only IOUs” issued by the Treasury to the Social Security Administration so retirees can get their benefits. “Perhaps a technical way of describing it is that it’s an intragovernmental accounting ledger,” Boccia said. The government has been shuffling deck chairs around to maintain Social Security benefit levels for the last 14 years, Boccia said. “Some of those deck chairs have fallen overboard,” she said. Shifting demographics pose a big problem for Social Security, Boccia said. People are living longer, but she said the retirement age hasn’t been adjusted accordingly. Fertility has declined, meaning fewer new workers are generating tax revenue for retiree benefits. In the 1950s, 16 workers paid taxes for every Social Security beneficiary, Boccia said. Now, there are just 2.7 workers covering the costs for each beneficiary. Benefits are also becoming more expensive in real terms, meaning above inflation, Boccia said. That’s due to Social Security’s benefit formula, which provides new recipients with a one-time productivity increase based on wage growth in the economy, she said. The simplest and most politically viable solution to fix Social Security would be to slow the growth of future benefits, Boccia said. Index initial benefits to prices instead of wages, she said. That change alone would close about 80% of the current funding shortfall. She said her preferred reform would be “a more bottoms-up approach” introducing some type of universal flat benefit. By moving away from an earnings-related benefit toward one based on years worked, this change would better distribute benefits to those who need financial aid in old age the most, she said. For example, the flat rate could be 125% above the federal poverty level. That would honor the original intent of Social Security, which was to protect seniors against poverty in retirement. “The beauty of such a more fundamental change is that you give people certainty about the size of the benefit that they can expect in retirement, which makes it much easier for people to plan their own savings and investment in order to supplement the basic benefit they will receive from the government,” Boccia said. Does the government need to raise taxes to keep Social Security viable for future generations? Boccia said higher taxes aren’t absolutely required. “But the question is, is it going to be politically viable to make any Social Security reforms that do not involve higher taxes on some Americans,” she said. Social Security reform is a tough one for politicians to tackle. No one wants to pay higher taxes, and no one wants their retirement benefits slashed. Boccia said a congressionally established fiscal commission could be given the authority to reform Social Security. “Then, by leaving the details to the commission, Congress can have political cover ... for unpopular changes,” she said. Boccia said Americans should be more worried about the growing national debt than their Social Security benefits disappearing a decade from now. “The program has been around for 90 years,” she said. “And the most likely scenario without meaningful reforms is that Congress will decide to borrow more money and basically ignore the 2033 borrowing authority limit and just blow right through it, the way that they blow through the debt limit every time it comes up.”
Neal Maupay: Whenever I’m having a bad day I check Everton score and smileUnilever To Slim Down Food Arm Through Disposals In CEO’s RevampMY JOB Name : John Deery Occupation : Communications coach and founder of The Public Speaking Course Background : A trained actor, John Deery has used his communication skills to help people overcome their greatest fear. Death, divorce and moving house are often cited as the greatest trials of life, but, for some, a deserved fourth on that list is the terror of public speaking. Fear of public speaking is a common form of anxiety, and can range from slight nervousness to paralysing fear and panic. As American writer and humorist, Mark Twain observed: “There are two types of public speakers — those who get nervous and those who are liars.” Statistically, over 75% of people suffer from ‘glossophobia’ — a fear of public speaking that manifests as high levels of anxiety and nerves. “Most people are not natural communicators or born public speakers,” explains John Deery. “Many people are fearful, nervous and self-conscious in front of an audience.” He points out the ‘little voice’ in their head is constantly over-thinking: ‘What will they think of me? What if I go blank and forget what I am saying? What happens if I make a mistake?’ That constant voice of fear whispers that people will think you are boring. “That voice says people will laugh at you, that you’re not good enough, that you don’t deserve to be there, that your speech will be a disaster and you will be fully exposed for what you truly are — an imposter.” Those who fail to face their fear of speaking in public are putting themselves at a professional disadvantage, with their incomes likely to be impaired up to 10% and promotion prospects shrinking by 15%, according to research from Columbia University. While research shows the fear of public speaking affects as many as three in four of the population, just 8% of people have taken deliberate measures to overcome it. “Humans are hardwired to be cautious about public speaking. We are social animals who evolved to rely on the group and so to avoid anything that might reduce our standing within it, like speaking out of turn. "The good news is that modern psychology has given us tools to override our programming and while some of the techniques we deploy on The Public Speaking Course are specific to the individual, many can be applied to every public speaking situation.” Mr Deery also cautions a fear of public speaking affects the student population, reducing the likelihood of college graduation by 10%. “I am very big on education and have worked with young people to overcome what would often be shyness at that younger age. I think more needs to be done in schools and universities to address this fear — I’ve seen many people who are frightened to attend a job interview because they don’t know how to behave or respond.” Hiding behind tech or social media and not wanting to physically or vocally engage is a problem that was further exacerbated by covid: “People stay exclusively with email or text in order to shy away from having a conversation. The previous habit of adding a phone number at the end of an email is no longer the case,” he adds. Clear, concise communication and the ability to stand up and speak without fear will help to get your message across, whether that be in a professional work environment or in a personal capacity, is key to overcoming this fear, he says. "I have worked with individuals and companies all over the world — Europe, the USA, Australia, Asia — and it is a fear that goes right across all cultures and ethnicities — a human condition crossing all geographical borders. "Having helped people from all walks of life: graduates starting out, CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, teachers and politicians, the terror of standing alone on stage to address large and small numbers is universal." “That fear crosses all boundaries — age, gender, nationality — with the majority in that 35 to 45 age group, generally a time in life when they are starting to advance in their careers and will need to speak at business gatherings or conferences.” He has also worked with a variety of companies and organisations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Unilever, BT, Pulsant, HSBC, Apple, Microsoft, NHS, Samsung and KPMG. Fear of public speaking has held back many a career progression, simply because those individuals knew such a promotion would require the ability to address a group or conference — and so they did not take that job opportunity. Mr Deery began his career as an actor working in theatre, television and film. Shortly after leaving the Drama Studio in London, he joined the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company and appeared in hundreds of radio broadcasts. He has used his presenting skills for many large companies and corporations, including being the main presenter for BT for five years, travelling all over the UK to present their latest technology to boards, business customers and strategic partners. On the back of that work, Mr Deery was asked to develop a one-day course teaching employees to speak and present in public for some of the UK’s leading companies. Thus began his current passion to help people overcome their greatest fear. In terms of helping to improve one’s ability to confront this universal fear, he offers a number of tips. “If you can, always check out where you are speaking beforehand — break the ‘fear’ of the room. Before you begin, take slow, conscious breaths — in through the nose and out through the mouth. Your exhale should last twice as long as your inhale — this will calm you down in any situation.” Staying present and being in the now assists that calm: “Remember you are telling a story — focus on the beginning, middle and end. Make eye contact with your audience where possible, just for a split second, taking in all areas of the room.” Using your body to take up space yields another physical advantage: “Don’t apologise for being there — just be fully present, no matter what happens during your talk. And, if the worst does happen, if you make a mistake or go blank — acknowledge it and move on.” thepublicspeakingcourse.com
The Latest: Former President Jimmy Carter is Dead at age 100
'Democracy and freedom': Jimmy Carter's human rights efforts in Latin AmericaOn the table, unconscious and stretched out on a pillow, Joe Mangy looks deceptively peaceful. The koala's watery, red-rimmed eyes are the only sign of the disease at war with his body. Tubes snarl out of a mask covering his face as a vet tech listens to his chest with a stethoscope. He is not healing as well as they had hoped. Eight days earlier, Joe Mangy – who is about two years old – was found wandering in the middle of a suburban road. Dazed and confused, eyes nearly glued shut with mucus, he was rushed here, to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's hospital. Enveloped by rainforest on Queensland's Gold Coast, the park is full of koalas like this. Outside the clinic, in a "Koala Rehab Centre" faintly perfumed by eucalyptus leaves, is a three-year-old recovering from a hysterectomy. "It saved her life... but she can't reproduce," the head vet Michael Payne says. Another male koala stares blankly through narrowed slits. His left tear duct is so inflamed his eyeball is barely visible. This hospital is ground zero of a grim chlamydia epidemic which is killing thousands of koalas and making even more sterile, pushing the national icons to the brink of extinction. But it's also at the core of desperate bid to save them with a vaccine – frustrated efforts which, after over a decade, are still tied up in regulation and running out of both time and money. Even a few decades ago, spotting a koala snuggled in a backyard tree was nothing out of the ordinary. They were plentiful on the country's populous east coast. But in recent times the species has been in dramatic decline – in some places plummeting by 80% in just 10 years. Land clearing and urbanisation are leaving the marsupials hungry and homeless, while natural disasters are drowning or cooking them en masse. "[But] it's the chlamydia that shot up tremendously - almost exponentially," says Dr Payne, who has run the Currumbin clinic for more than 20 years. "You get days where you're euthanising heaps of koalas that just come in completely ravaged." Estimates vary greatly – koalas are famously difficult to count – but some groups say as few as 50,000 of the animals are left in the wild and the species is officially listed as endangered on most of the eastern seaboard. There are now fears the animals will be extinct in some states within a generation. Dr Payne wistfully recounts "the early days" when his hospital only saw a handful of koalas a year. They now see 400. So many come through the door that the team has started giving them two names, a vet nurse says, cradling Joe Mangy as he wakes from the anaesthetic. His last name is a nod to the state of his eyes when he first arrived, she explains. Of the top reasons koalas are brought into wildlife hospitals – vehicle strikes, pet attacks and chlamydia – the bacterial infection is the biggest and deadliest. It results in conjunctivitis for koalas like Joe Mangy, but presents as an infection of the genitals and urinary system for others. Particularly unlucky animals, get both at the same time. At its worst, the ocular form can be so bad koalas are blinded and starve to death, while the urogenital infection produces giant fluid-filled cysts so "nasty" everyday bodily functions like passing urine make the animals cry out in pain. "Their reproductive system falls apart," Dr Payne explains. If caught early enough, treatment is an option, but that in itself is a potentially fatal "nightmare" as the antibiotics destroy the gut bacteria which allow koalas to digest otherwise toxic eucalyptus leaves – their main food source. On a species level though, the disease, which spreads through bodily fluids, causes even greater ruin. Chlamydia is not uncommon in other animals – koalas are suspected to have first caught it from livestock – but the spread and intensity of the disease amongst the marsupials is unmatched. Experts estimate around half of koalas in Queensland and New South Wales could be infected, but just a suburb away from Currumbin, in Elanora, that has climbed beyond 80%. It is the most diseased population in the region and numbers have been "falling off a cliff", Dr Payne says. "It's a disaster." Enter the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and their vaccine, which aims to prevent and treat chlamydia in koalas and has been almost two decades in the making. Alongside Currumbin, they're trying to save the Elanora koalas from oblivion: capturing 30 youngsters and vaccinating them, before recatching them at intervals over three years to track their health. So far only three of the vaccinated koalas in this research trial have contracted the disease, though all recovered, and encouragingly, more than two dozen joeys have been born - bucking the infertility trend. "There's generations of koalas now that have come through. We've got grand joeys," Dr Payne says excitedly. Currumbin has also been vaccinating every koala which comes through their hospital, and have reached about 400 koalas this way. But treating and vaccinating each koala with chlamydia costs them about A$7,000 (£3,500, $4,500). Capturing, jabbing, and tracking each wild Elanora koala is basically double that. Two hours away, researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) are doing their best to flatten the wave of disease too, with a separate vaccine. They inoculate about 2,000 koalas a year through wildlife hospital trials and tack themselves onto development projects or research studies in the region that involve their capture. They've just wrapped a decade's-worth of those projects into one study of more than 600 animals – the largest and longest of its kind. Incredibly, deaths dropped by two thirds among vaccinated koalas. Molecular biologist Samuel Phillips tells the BBC about one local koala population they studied which was at risk of extinction. Authorities are now looking at translocating some animals so they don't overpopulate the area. "It turned it around completely." And crucially, the study found that the koalas that did contract chlamydia were doing so later in life, after their peak breeding years had begun. Dr Phillips and his research partner Peter Timms have now submitted their vaccine to the federal regulator for approval but say they're keeping their hopes in check. "There'll be hurdles," Dr Timms explains. In the meantime, for their small, overstretched team, dividing time and funding is an impossible balance. Do they involve themselves in as many trials as possible to help small groups of koalas now, or do they devote their efforts to advancing the tedious research and approval process which could help a huge cohort of them down the track? "People come to us semi-regularly and say, 'Can we vaccinate more koalas?' And the answer at some point is 'No', because otherwise we're just spending all our time and energy doing [that]," Dr Timms says. It has now been a decade since these two research teams first started seeing results, and there is still no real timeline on when a jab will be ready. And even when it is, there are huge barriers to any roll out. While making the vaccine isn't that costly, finding, capturing, and vaccinating wild koalas is extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming. Dr Phillips says they would have to strategically target select populations, though they're not yet sure how many koalas in each they'd need to treat to reverse decline. That challenge will be doubly complicated with the QUT vaccine, though, because it requires two doses, as opposed to UniSC's single-shot formula. The QUT team has been developing an implant – inspired by a human contraceptive device – that dissolves after four weeks to provide the booster. It will be trialled on Currumbin's captive koalas next year. Then there is the question of funding, which has been, and continues to be, fickle. Both vaccine developers provide their shots to wildlife hospitals and research trials for free, relying on individual donors, generosity from their universities, and the unpredictable whims of election cycles. State and federal governments are the biggest financial backers of the vaccine projects – last year Canberra gave QUT and UniSC A$750,000 each. "No-one wants to imagine an Australia without koalas," Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said at the time. But government contributions are random, and never quite enough. "I cannot believe somebody will not come along tomorrow and say 'You need to vaccinate? Here's my cheque to cover the next 10 years'. But we can't find them," Dr Timms says. However, the biggest barrier is the mountain of red tape researchers are yet to cut through. Both groups have conservation charities and wildlife hospitals knocking down the door, desperate for access, but until they go through the "painful" approval process, their hands are largely tied. "[It's] a critical step that is just taking too long. It kills me," Dr Payne says. "We've kind of passed it being urgent. It was urgent probably 10 years ago." Adding to their despondency, is a fact all involved stress repeatedly: the vaccine is simply not enough to save the species. And so even the lucky koalas like Joe Mangy, who dodge death by chlamydia and return to the wild, still must face off against a myriad of other mortal threats. "It's death by a thousand cuts, right?" Dr Timms says.
De'Vondre Campbell's mid-game quitting overshadowed the 49ers' offensive woesWith a focus on human rights, US policy toward Latin America under Jimmy Carter briefly tempered a long tradition of interventionism in a key sphere of American influence, analysts say. Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, defied the furor of US conservatives to negotiate the handover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control, suspended aid to multiple authoritarian governments in the region, and even attempted to normalize relations with Cuba. Carter's resolve to chart a course toward democracy and diplomacy, however, was severely tested in Central America and Cuba, where he was forced to balance his human rights priorities with pressure from adversaries to combat the spread of communism amid the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. "Latin America was fundamental and his global policy was oriented toward human rights, democratic values and multilateral cooperation," political analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank in Washington, told AFP. During his 1977-1981 administration, which was sandwiched between the Republican presidencies of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, the Democrat sought to take a step back from US alignment with right-wing dictatorships in Latin America. An important symbol of Carter's approach was the signing of two treaties in 1977 to officially turn over the Panama Canal in 1999. "Jimmy Carter understood that if he did not return the canal to Panama, the relationship between the United States and Panama could lead to a new crisis in a country where Washington could not afford the luxury of instability," said Luis Guillermo Solis, a political scientist and former president of Costa Rica. Carter called the decision, which was wildly unpopular back home, "the most difficult political challenge I ever had," as he accepted Panama's highest honor in 2016. He also hailed the move as "a notable achievement of moving toward democracy and freedom." During his term, Carter opted not to support Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza, who was subsequently overthrown by the leftist Sandinista Front in 1979. But in El Salvador, the American president had to "make a very uncomfortable pact with the government," said Shifter. To prevent communists from taking power, Carter resumed US military assistance for a junta which then became more radical, engaging in civilian massacres and plunging El Salvador into a long civil war. Carter took a critical approach to South American dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, suspending arms deliveries and imposing sanctions in some cases. But his efforts "did not achieve any progress in terms of democratization," said Argentine political scientist Rosendo Fraga. The American president also tried to normalize relations with Cuba 15 years after the missile crisis. He relaxed sanctions that had been in force since 1962, supported secret talks and enabled limited diplomatic representation in both countries. "With him, for the first time, the possibility of dialogue rather than confrontation as a framework for political relations opened up," Jesus Arboleya, a former Cuban diplomat, told AFP. But in 1980, a mass exodus of 125,000 Cubans to the United States, with Fidel Castro's blessing, created an unexpected crisis. It "hurt Carter politically with the swarm of unexpected immigrants," said Jennifer McCoy, a professor of political science at Georgia State University. Castro continued to support Soviet-backed African governments and even deployed troops against Washington's wishes, finally putting an end to the normalization process. However, more than 20 years later, Carter made a historic visit to Havana as ex-president, at the time becoming the highest-profile American politician to set foot on Cuban soil since 1959. During the 2002 visit, "he made a bold call for the US to lift its embargo, but he also called on Castro to embrace democratic opening," said McCoy, who was part of the US delegation for the trip, during which Castro encouraged Carter to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Cuban All-Star baseball game. "Castro was sitting in the front row and we were afraid he would rise to give a long rebuttal to Carter's speech. But he didn't. He just said, 'Let's go to the ball game.'" In the years following Carter's presidency, Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) would go on to resume a full-frontal confrontation with Cuba. Decades later, Barack Obama (2009-2017) opened a new phase of measured normalization, which Donald Trump (2017-2021) brought to an end. US President Joe Biden promised to review US policy toward Cuba, but hardened his stance after Havana cracked down on anti-government protests in 2021. "Carter showed that engagement and diplomacy are more fruitful than isolation," McCoy said. bur-lp-rd-jb/lbc/mlr/bfm/sst/bbk
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