Hey gang. It’s Wednesday and we’re politicking. So before you start politicking, why not check out one of these interesting articles?
Afghan Women, Erased From Public Life, Are Turning to Instagram
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have effectively sought to erase women from public life. An intricate web of laws and policies have denied women access to education, the labor market, and almost all other aspects of lives outside their homes. Those brave enough to take to the streets to protest have been beaten, arrested, and tortured.
Despite the dystopian levels of repression, Afghan women continue to show remarkable resilience. Denied access to public life, they are increasingly turning to the online sphere, where they have taken to X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook to challenge Taliban rule and organize. But, as a new report by Afghan Witness released recently shows, women are also turning to social media, in particular Instagram, for entrepreneurship, creativity, and self-expression – although often at huge personal risk.
Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” Elon Musk said. “No one.”
That is not true. In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and President Trump are already leading children to die.
Peter Donde was a 10-year-old infected with H.I.V. from his mother during childbirth. But American aid kept Peter strong even as his parents died from AIDS. A program started by President George W. Bush called PEPFAR saved 26 million lives from AIDS, and one was Peter’s.
The Big, Empty Promises of the Ballooning Credit-Repair Industry
A good credit score is the crucial first step in the climb out of poverty, while a bad score can function as an invisible embargo on acquiring life’s basic necessities. The scores, which range from 300 to 850, are meant to act as an index of a person’s financial health—and therefore of their likelihood to pay back creditors on time and in full. In most states across the United States, consumers need to have a score of at least 660 in order to rent an apartment, get or refinance a decent mortgage, keep a cell phone, pay utility bills without an additional fee, or qualify for a low-interest loan for a car. Bad credit, meanwhile, can expose them to additional costs and penalties. In certain places, landlords can reject prospective tenants because of their low credit scores. Low scores can allow auto insurers to double their yearly premiums in some states, and a single late payment on a credit card could depress a score by up to 125 points.
[…]
But how that service actually functioned was shrouded in mystery to her. Unbeknownst to Thames at the time, the company, which is part of the ballooning credit-repair industry, was being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The lawsuit alleged that some of the largest credit-repair companies in the country, including Lexington Law, violated industry telemarketing regulations by charging advance fees and engaged in unlawful billing practices, harvesting billions of dollars from some four million consumers. The scheme disproportionately affected economically vulnerable customers like Thames, customers who devoted scarce resources to the firm in hopes that it could help them take the first step out of poverty.
What might happen if you gave homeless people a new, safe, quiet apartment for themselves, plus free furniture, counseling and classes? As housing costs have soared across Tampa Bay, an experiment in downtown St. Petersburg offers 50 affordable homes — and a chance to start over.
The for-profit prison company GEO Group has surged in value under President Donald Trump. Investors are betting big on immigration detention. Its stock price doubled after Election Day.
But despite its soaring fortunes, the $4 billion company continues to resist having to pay detainees more than $1 a day for cleaning facilities where the government has forced them to live.
Be kind and thoughtful today. Cheers.