Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

After being banned in Brazil for misinformation on social media’s X, billionaire owner Elon Musk paid a $5.1 million fine and agreed to follow the nation’s media laws so X could resume business: BBC.

As recent hurricane flooding in the southeast recedes, insurance claims are providing a rude surprise: unless bought separately, flood damage is typically not covered, The Guardian reported.

Insurance policy-holders in high-risk climate-change disaster areas are being dropped. But insurers are insuring the fossil fuel industry that feeds climate change, The Lever says. The Senate Budget Committee has asked insurers to say how much they earn from the fossil fuel industry.

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who cared for her cancer-ridden mother, has proposed expanding Medicare to cover in-home aide for seniors. How to pay for it: Harris calls for expanding the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, and other reforms. CBS says Medicare now saves $31 billion annually from drug price negotiations.

Again, presidential candidate Donald Trump’s been making campaign history. At a town hall, after two audience members fainted (likely due to heat) the Guardian said Trump opted to stop questions and instead “Let’s just listen to music...who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” He “danced” for the next 39 minutes. (His opponent used a video of the event to state “he’s unstable and unhinged.”) As well, Trump has urged people to vote in January, says Dems want to outlaw cows and windows on buildings, and his opponent is “retarded.” He’s said he’ll fix any Election Day chaos, which he said would come from his opponents, by using the National Guard or the military.

At a recent economic forum, Trump refused to acknowledge that his tariff proposals would, as Bloomberg’s editor in chief pointed out, stop trade with China, impact 40 million U.S. jobs and have a “drastic” impact on our economy.

In journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, War, he wrote that when Trump was president he secretly sent Russia’s President Vladimir Putin an Abbott testing kit for Covid. CBS says Trump’s opponent commented that U.S. residents were scrambling for Covid test kits at the time, but Trump chose to send the kits to a “murderous dictator.”

BBC: inflation in the U.S. is at the lowest level since 2021; it’s the same rate as before Covid.

The website “Gateway Pundit,” claimed there was fraud in the 2020 vote count in Atlanta, but now says there was no fraud and has settled a defamation lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. The initial claim targeted two women election workers with wrongdoing, resulting in the workers getting death threats and “severe harassment,” The Guardian reported. The women also settled a lawsuit with One America Network, which then broadcast a correction that said there was no fraud by the women.

Last week Hurricane Milton quickly morphed into a category 5 hurricane, but subsided to a category 3. In 2005 Louisiana’s Hurricane Katrina also went from a 5 to a 3; 1,392 people died then; damages were $190 billion. Florida was different: the president pre-approved emergency declarations. The Guardian said Florida had mandatory evacuation orders for 7.2 million people. Damages from high winds and flooding are an estimated $50 billion. At least 23 people died from Hurricane Milton.

With two water-dense hurricanes within two weeks, agriculture in the southeast has taken a hit. Various media said the impact could raise prices on crops like tomatoes, soy, citrus and cotton.

FEMA’s own political storm: The Guardian says hurricane season ends in late November, but FEMA funding until then is insufficient. Congress is in recess, and President Joe Biden says lawmakers may need to be called back to decide about shoring up FEMA. 

The House’s Republican speaker has resisted a call-back. Bi-partisan senators from hurricane-hit states say they want Congress to return to allocate more emergency hurricane relief funds. But Republicans are balking: Trump is falsely stating that the Biden Administration is misusing FEMA funds to help immigrants so Democrats will have more voters (they can’t vote). 

FEMA’s disaster funds are entirely separate from funds for immigration issues. But, the Washington Post reported, while Trump was in office he did use FEMA funds on immigrants,

North Carolina’s Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards has debunked the surge of hurricane conspiracy theories and hearsay, Mediaite reported. Examples: Edwards says the $750 FEMA funds for survivors, for disaster relief, is a payment for essential items and is not the total amount of aid to be expected. 

Edwards also debunked false claims that Hurricane Helene was geo-engineered by the government for the purpose of seizing and accessing regional lithium deposits.

After the National Guard reported seeing anti-FEMA militia in North Carolina, various media later reported that one man had been arrested, and FEMA disaster recovery centers remain open.

Blast from the past: “Even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, American writer and physician, 1809-1894.