It is highly regional, too.

Despite the existence of the Department of Education (which Trump is trying to dismantle), there is no national standard for education in the US. In general, each state is free to decide upon its own policies and standards.

Some states, such as those in the northeast, have very high-performing school systems. So when that "1 in 5 are illiterate" statistic is mentioned (I actually have not verified that number, just quoting the prior claim as an example), it would be caused by low-performing states where the situation is much more dire dragging down the national average.

Here's a general look at quality of education in the US by state, though recommend folks look up their own numbers because I haven't validated the numbers pulled in the article I grabbed this from.

It's not a perfect divide between red states and blue states (Florida appears good, California less so, as an example), but in general we see the lower performing states located mainly in the South where the Republicans have more support. Basically, a less educated populace is easier to manipulate.

If you happen to be in the US, better to make those sorts of purchases now before prices go up under tariffs.

They're in the article:

The court issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza...Khan withdrew requests for warrants for two other senior Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, who have both since been killed. Israel says it also killed Deif in an airstrike, but Hamas has never confirmed his death.

Hamas in a statement welcomed the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant but made no mention of the one against Deif.

But their PFP is a black woman! And they're verified! Surely it must mean that their stance is genuine!

There's gotta be some partial decrease in circulation, though, given that my fingers on the numb hand are usually colder than my non-numb hand when this sometimes happens to me.

A Russian caught doping? At the Olympics??

Nobody is aborting 9 month old fetuses outside of exceptional medical emergencies, and denying women bodily autonomy is incredibly authoritarian.

Nobody is aborting 9-month-old fetuses at all. Unless that fetus is already dead or dying, 9 months is well past the point of viability.

24 weeks (5 months and some change) is when a fetus could viably survive outside the womb with medical intervention. 9 months is at the point of being fully developed, even if it is a couple weeks premature.

Almost all abortions happen at 10 weeks or less, well before the point of viability. Almost no abortions happen after 24 weeks. Definitely none happening at 9 months.

Wow, not only anticipating that there will be another 9 world wars, but that we will even reset our dating system again to start counting the years later.

Communism as drafted by 19th and 20th century thinkers will never work, predicated on the idea that labor is inherently undesirable and will not be performed by humans without immediate incentive.

We will need to rethink our approach towards communism with consideration for the growing spread of automation. Like it or not, automation is going to lead to the end of capitalism when the majority of jobs we have today are rendered obsolete and the unemployed masses are forced to subsist through some sort of UBI.

The goal is to keep the automation out of the hands of billionaires, however. If a society begins to approach post scarcity, which will finally render capitalism obsolete, the oligarchs will do whatever they can to re-engineer scarcity and bring us back to feudalism before they'd ever consider giving power to the people.

I think I understand what you're getting at but just keep in mind that there are two sort of separate discussions in regards to that.

The WHO and the health organization of various countries are usually pretty specific in their definitions. The "public health emergency" of COVID is over because:

• There is no longer a need for a coordinated international effort.

• The population is no longer largely at risk due to vaccinations/immunities.

• The mortality rate has dropped significantly.

But I don't think anyone would deny that COVID is here to stay on a global scale. It's just that the health systems of most countries are now equipped to manage it without all of the lockdown precautions.

This is a TTRPG community

You think those homes in the frozen north are selling for less than $200,000?

I wish...