Debt Ceiling Agreement

On Saturday, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed on principle on a deal to raise the debt ceiling for the next two years and to cap spending, moving the nation one step back from the brink of a historic default. The two have until June 5 to sell the agreement to their sides. That date is when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. will no longer be able to pay its bills.

“After weeks of negotiations, we have come to an agreement in principle. We still have a lot of work to do but I believe this is an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people,” McCarthy said during brief remarks to reporters.

“The agreement protects my and congressional Democrats’ key priorities and legislative accomplishments,”

RAV GERSHON’S LAST LETTER: FOR THE CAUSE OF SHAS YIDEN

In the last week of the Gadol Hador’s life, as the great light was preparing to ascent to Shomayim, Rav Gershon Edelstein, zt”l, who left this world at 100 years of age—following a century of Torah on this earth—he sat down to sign a letter on behalf of Shas Yiden which was so close to his heart.

It would be the last signature in his lifetime.

Rav Gershon alluded to the great Torah pillars of the past, Rav Meir Shapiro and the Ponovezher Rov, who established Torah for generations. He noted that the Pozna Ruv, Rav Avrohom Eisen, founder of Shas Yiden, has come to ‘seal’ their work by producing yungeleit who are ‘yodei haShas ve’haTorah.”

He continued with a Bracha for the continued success of the organization in all of its endeavors, as it continued to grow around the world.

With the passing of Rav Gershon, Shas Yiden has lost its leader and proponent who constantly encouraged its growth.

Kollel Shas Yiden network mourns along with the entire Klal Yisroel for this great

Biden said. “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That’s the responsibility of governing.”

If the deal ends up passing through Congress and being signed into law by Biden before that so-called “X date,” the White House and House Republicans will have avoided an unprecedented economic crisis. A default by the U.S. government, which has never happened, could spark a global recession and the loss of millions of jobs – a scenario that loomed over a last-minute rush of holiday weekend negotiations.

The two-year deal would also push the next fight over raising the debt ceiling until after the 2024 elections.

The agreement in principle will lift the debt limit for two years and roughly cap non-defense spending to current fiscal year levels for 2024 and increase it by 1% in fiscal year 2025. As part of the deal, the White House has also appeared to have made concessions to House Republican negotiators on work requirements for people receiving food stamps.

Building Collapse in Iowa

of service dogs in an attempt to locate victims within the structure, according to a press release from city officials.

Sarah Ott, the city’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement on Tuesday that city officials are “continually evaluating the timing of the demolition.”

“Demolition is a multi-phase process that includes permitting and staging of equipment that will begin today,” Ott said. “The building remains structurally insecure and in imminent danger of collapse.”

Members of the community organized a demonstration at the scene to protest the planned demolition, concerned that people may still be inside the rubble.

Sanctions for Counterfeit Pills

On Sunday afternoon, a building in Davenport, Iowa, partially collapsed. The building had housed 84 apartments – both residential and commercial. Now, the city is set to demolish the six-story building, even though some people are saying that their relatives are still missing.

The cause of the collapse is unknown.

More than a dozen people were evacuated from the building at the time and eight people were rescued in the 24 hours that followed. On Monday, officials said no deaths had been confirmed and there was no credible information that anyone was missing. But on Monday night, another victim was extracted from the debris.

Over 150 personnel have taken part in the “extensive rescue operations,” using thermal imaging, drones and a team

This week, the Biden administration sanctioned more than a dozen people and entities in China and Mexico that are linked to the production and distribution of counterfeit and fentanyl-laced pills.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 17 people and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in the sale of pill press machines, die molds, and other equipment used to impress counterfeit trade markings onto illicitly produced pills that are often laced with fentanyl.

The action was taken in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The designations target seven entities and six people based in China, and one entity and three people based in Mexico.

“Manufacturing illicit drugs in pill form requires a pill press machine, a controlled substance, and die molds — metallic pill press components bearing impressions that are punched onto pills,” the Treasury Department explained. “A die is fixed to a pill press machine in order to punch repeated impressions during pill mass production.”

“Treasury’s sanctions target every stage of the deadly supply chain fueling the surge in fentanyl poisonings and deaths across the country,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement. “Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl constitute a leading cause of these deaths, devastating thousands of American families each year.”

Nelson said the Biden administration remains “committed to using all authorities against enablers of illicit drug production to disrupt this deadly global pro - duction and counter the threat posed by these drugs.”

18 Years for Oath Keepers Leader

Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the farright Oath Keepers group, was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in prison for his conviction on seditious conspiracy charges for the role he played in helping to mobilize the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The sentence, handed down in U.S. District Court in Washington, was the most severe penalty so far in any of the more than 1,000 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol events — and the first to be increased for fitting the legal definition of terrorism.

It was also the first to have been given to any of the 10 members of the Oath

Keepers and another far-right group, the Proud Boys, who were convicted of sedition in connection with the events of January 6.

At a dramatic, nearly four-hour hearing, Judge Amit Mehta chided Rhodes for seeking for years through his leadership of the Oath Keepers to have American democracy “devolve into violence.”

“You, sir,” Mehta went on, addressing the defendant, “present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country, to the Republic.”

Kathryn Rakoczy, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, said Rhodes exploited his talents and influence to goad his followers into rejecting the results of the 2020 election and ultimately mobilized them into storming the Capitol in two separate military-style “stacks” in a violent effort to keep then-President Donald Trump in office.

Rhodes, 58, gave a defiant address to the court, blaming the news media for demonizing the Oath Keepers for leading the Capitol events. He also compared himself to Soviet-era dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn and to the beleaguered main character in Franz Kafka’s novel “The Trial.”

“I am a political prisoner,” Rhodes said.

The hearing opened a week of sentencing proceedings for eight other members of the Oath Keepers who were convicted at two separate trials — in November and January — of charges that included not only seditious conspiracy but also the obstruction of a congressional proceeding to certify the 2020 election.

In the end, Mehta said he had imposed a harsh sentence because seditious conspiracy was “among the most serious crimes an individual in America can commit.” (© The New York Times)

12 Symptoms of Long Covid

In a study published on Thursday in the medical journal JAMA, researchers detailed a list of 12 symptoms that can classify someone as having long Covid.

Census data suggests that 15% of U.S. adults experienced new or lasting symptoms months after their initial infections, a phenomenon scientists have dubbed postacute sequelae of SARSCoV-2 infection, or PASC. More than 200 symptoms have been reported by people with PASC or long Covid.

The twelve symptoms that researchers said defined long Covid include: Postexertional malaise, or the worsening of health after mental or physical activity; fatigue; brain fog; dizziness; gastrointestinal symptoms; heart palpitations; loss of or change in smell or taste; thirst; chronic cough; chest pain; and abnormal movements.

In addition to those symptoms, researchers also noticed other phenomena. For example, people were more likely to have long Covid if they were infected before the arrival of the Omicron variant: About 35% of people infected pre-Omicron met the definition of long Covid, versus about 10% of study participants who were infected with Omicron’s subvariants.