• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

Residents plea for help after Hurricane Melissa is hard-hit town of Black River

admin - Latest News - October 31, 2025
admin
21 views 19 secs 0 Comments



Black River, Jamaica was completely destroyed by Hurricane Melissa. Residents say aid still has not arrived in the town, and they are in desperate need of food and water. NBC News’ George Solis reports.



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
Federal judge rules Trump administration must fund SNAP benefits
NEXT
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 1, 2025, 5:15 AM EDTBy Jeremy Mikula and Melinda YaoTrade talks between the United States and China take place, a beloved children’s author has a new book, and a Russian weapon picks up a 007 codename. Test your knowledge of this week’s news, and take last week’s quiz here. Jeremy MikulaJeremy Mikula is the weekend director of platforms for NBC News.Melinda YaoI am an intern for NBC News’ Data / Graphics team.Lara Horwitz and Amina Kilpatrick contributed.
Related Post
September 22, 2025
Erika Kirk speaks at husband Charlie Kirk’s memorial
October 22, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 22, 2025, 1:58 PM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Ginny Murray says she and her husband, Chaz, are out of options for health insurance. In January, their premiums are expected to rise higher than they’ve ever gone up before, putting the cost out of reach. The Arkansas couple plan to drop their coverage, betting their savings will be enough if unexpected illness strikes.“Our plan is to keep putting the money we’re already paying towards health care in savings,” said Murray, whose insurance is covered through the Affordable Care Act, “and really just hoping that we don’t have a stroke or we don’t have a heart attack.”They’re part of a broader shift taking shape as enhanced subsidies for ACA premiums are set to expire at the end of the year. Without them, many Americans could see their monthly premiums double or even triple next year, a spike that’s forcing people to rethink what they can afford — or whether health insurance is even worth it. Next year will be the biggest premium increase since the ACA took effect, said Art Caplan, the head of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Open enrollment for ACA plans begins next month, and there is no data yet on how many people plan on dropping their coverage. However, the Congressional Budget Office projects nearly 4 million will drop their health insurance for next year if the subsidies expire. The issue has paralyzed Washington, where Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government unless the tax credits are extended.For Murray, 48, the math simply doesn’t work. A truck driver, she was injured in a work accident 2 ½ years ago and is still receiving workers’ compensation, unable to work full time. Her husband, also a truck driver, continues to drive as an independent owner-operator.The couple’s monthly premium is around $1,500; with the subsidies, it comes down to around $450. But the state regulators approved a 26% rate increase for their insurer, which means their premiums will rise by at least $400 next year. The cost could more than triple if the subsidies expire.“What other choice do we have?” Murray said. ‘A catastrophic event’Choosing to go uninsured isn’t new. Before the ACA became law in 2010, millions of Americans made similar choices — often with devastating financial consequences, said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. From 2010 to 2023, the rate of people going uninsured fell from around 16% — about 48 million people — to 7.7%, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. Meanwhile, enrollment in ACA plans has grown from 8 million people in 2014 to a record 24.3 million people in 2025, thanks in part to the enhanced subsidies, according to the health policy research group KFF. “Unless you are extraordinarily rich, it is effectively not possible to save enough money to cover the costs of a serious illness or major trauma,” Gaffney said. “For the uninsured, medical debt and bankruptcy is just one major illness or injury away.” That reality is compounded by the fact that many Americans don’t have much of a financial cushion, said JoAnn Volk, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.In 2024, roughly 37% of adults said they would struggle to cover a $400 emergency expense, according to the Federal Reserve. And for those who do manage to build a large emergency fund, the balance often pales in comparison to what a common medical procedure could cost, Volk said. window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});“I’m sure people plan to save the money,” Volk said, “but [I’m] not sure how many can do so, and I expect they don’t know how much they’ll need for some common procedures if they have to pay out of pocket, let alone a catastrophic event or unexpected diagnosis.”‘It’s only gotten worse’D’nelle Dowis, of Denver, knows how quickly an unexpected medical expense can add up. She recalls how her father’s appendectomy in the 1990s was a huge financial burden for her family. “It was a big thing for our family having to deal with that,” Dowis said. “So, there’s some kind of childhood fears wrapped up in this.” Still, Dowis and her husband, Christopher, plan to drop their ACA coverage for next year and put that money into a high-yield savings account. The Denver couple, both in their 40s, run a web development business together — which Dowis says they were only able to start due to the safety net the ACA provided. They pay about $600 a month in premiums, but that could jump to $1,300 next year. D’nelle and Christopher Dowis and their two dogs.Courtesy of Dowis familyKeeping their coverage would mean cutting back on care for their two aging dogs, both of whom have cancer, as well as putting less money toward their retirement savings and holiday travel to visit family. “We’d be cutting down on other things that I see as necessities, and I’m not sure if, at this point in my 40s, I’m necessarily willing to do that or not,” Dowis said. Both she and her husband are healthy, which makes going without coverage feel manageable for now. “I am exceptionally frustrated and there’s a level of anger to it,” Dowis said. “We’ve had 15 years now to try to solve this problem, and it’s only gotten worse.” Claire Esparros, 34, said she has the same “psychological, mental, emotional breakdown” every year when it’s time to renew her ACA coverage and face the new monthly rate.Esparros, a New York City-based freelance photographer, has no major health problems and mostly uses her coverage for the basics — annual physicals and the occasional sick visit. But she said her plan hasn’t offered much peace of mind.“It’s horrible insurance,” she said. She has a so-called catastrophic plan, which carries a deductible of nearly $10,000. “The only reason I have it is if something truly horrible happens.”Next year, though, she’s planning to let it go. Her monthly premium is set to triple from about $300 to $900 — and she said she can no longer justify the cost.Instead of setting up a savings account like the Murrays and Dowises, Esparros is exploring health care co-ops, which pool money among members to cover medical expenses.Caplan, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said co-ops, sometimes called community-based self-insurance, can be cheaper and more flexible — especially for healthy people — but they aren’t regulated under the ACA. That means they may not cover certain medical bills and are subject to bankruptcy from a single expensive case. “It is a ‘Put your faith in your neighbor’ idea,” he said.Esparros has been looking into two options and said so far she hasn’t heard of any major drawbacks. “It feels more personal and safe,” she said.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.Geet Jeswani and Jiachuan Wu contributed.
October 29, 2025
Israel launches retaliatory strikes on Hamas in Gaza
September 24, 2025
Sept. 24, 2025, 5:17 PM EDTBy Peter Nicholas and Dan De LuceWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is suddenly bullish when it comes to Ukraine’s chances of repelling Russia’s invasion and regaining all its territory, yet the shift in rhetoric means little unless he is prepared to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, diplomats and foreign officials say.Thus far, Trump hasn’t taken these essential steps, they added.Trump’s social media post Tuesday upended the conventional thinking about his view of the war, now in its fourth year. Back in February, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he didn’t have the “cards” in a peace negotiation and that his country was in “big trouble.”Now, Trump says that Russia is the one that is in “big economic trouble” and that its failure to swiftly conquer its smaller neighbor has revealed it to be a “paper tiger.”“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he wrote in his post Tuesday. “Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win,” Trump added. “This is not distinguishing Russia.”Trump’s aim in releasing the statement was to exert “maximum public pressure on Russia to get them to the table for a deal” to end the war, according to a senior Trump administration official.Next steps will depend on how Russia responds, said the official, who did not lay out any specific policy changes happening now.There are different ways to construe Trump’s statement. One is that he’s grown tired of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s persistence in shelling Ukraine and is prepared to step up coercive measures aimed at getting Russia to pull back.“Trump concluded Putin is not interested in peace,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump confidant, said in an interview Wednesday. Calling Trump’s post and his speech to the United Nations General Assembly a “game-changer,” Graham added, “There was a belief in Moscow that Trump is on their side, but the president made it clear that Ukraine will have all it needs as long as it needs.”Another interpretation is that Trump is done with what’s proved a futile effort to midwife a peace deal. Instead, Trump is leaving it to the combatants and European nations to resolve the war as best they can. “Good luck to all!” Trump wrote at the end of his post.Nothing in Trump’s post committed the U.S. to more aggressive action on Ukraine’s behalf. He did not say he would impose secondary sanctions on China for its economic support of Russia. Nor did he pledge to slap new sanctions on Russia. Rather, he said the U.S. would continue something it is already doing: selling weapons to NATO that the alliance is in turn supplying to Ukraine.Trump’s message was accurate in that he noted that Russia’s economy is under strain from international sanctions while endorsing Ukraine’s territorial integrity, said Evelyn Farkas, executive director of the McCain Institute think tank. But there was no indication that the president was ready to take measures bolstering Ukraine’s position, either by squeezing Russia or stepping up U.S. military aid to Ukraine, she said.“In terms of concrete action, that’s the missing thing,” Farkas said. “He hasn’t changed anything he’s doing.”Trump’s Truth Social post appears to reflect his growing frustration over what he sees as Russia’s intransigence, and his recognition of what European governments have been saying for some time: that Moscow is struggling to turn the tide in a grinding conflict.“But I don’t think he’s willing to do much about it,” one source close to Zelenskyy’s government said.In a further sign that America’s posture remains largely the same, there was no indication that the White House had notified allies or Ukraine that U.S. policy had changed, according to three Western officials and a source close to Ukraine. At present, allies do not anticipate that Trump’s new assessment will result in concrete action such as a weapons package for Ukraine, the sources said.One Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the message to Europe seemed to be: “Over to you.”“I read it [Trump’s social media post] as him trying to back out of this whole thing,” said John Bolton, who was White House national security adviser in Trump’s first term and has become an outspoken critic of the president. “He’s not saying the U.S. is doing anything new or different from what it’s doing now, i.e., selling weapons and ammunition and things to Europe.”“This is not, ‘I’m going to sanction Russia. I’m going to arm Ukraine. I’m going to do this or that.’ This is, ‘I’m sure glad the Europeans and NATO are going to help out,’” Bolton added. (The FBI searched Bolton’s home last month as part of an investigation into classified records. An attorney for Bolton has said that the former official did not keep or store anything improper.)It would be a mistake to discount the import of Trump’s statement, others said. A president who has long called for warmer relations between Washington and Moscow is now publicly belittling Russia’s military machine. Those living in Russia’s shadow welcomed Trump’s affirmation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.“This is remarkable,” said Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. “I see it probably as the first time that the U.S. president said that Ukraine should win the war and this victory means the liberation of the occupied territories.”One Western official whose country is a member of the so-called Coalition of the Willing that supports Ukraine said: “We have always been saying that Russia has been weaker than anyone thought. We have been saying they have been weakened by the sanctions and weaker than what some think and weaker than even Putin thinks. We fully agree with this analysis.”Heartening as Trump’s message was to Ukraine’s allies, an about-face could come at any point. Trump has a history of making pronouncements that don’t always hold up.Heading to a summit meeting with Putin in Alaska last month, Trump said he wanted a ceasefire. He emerged from the meeting with no ceasefire, saying the new goal was a broader peace agreement — an outcome that is not in sight. Moscow has expanded its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing a record number of civilians.Since taking office, Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if it doesn’t negotiate in good faith, and issued two deadlines to Moscow that have come and gone without consequences.The president mentioned a new deadline on Tuesday at a bilateral meeting at the United Nations with Zelenskyy. When reporters asked Trump if he still trusts Putin, he said, “I’ll let you know in about a month from now.”Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said in an interview: “I’m pleased by the sentiment of support” for Ukraine.He added: “I don’t want to be snarky or cynical, but we’ve seen for many months Trump tiptoe up to the line of action, and then slide away from it.”“We see a lot of words from Trump. We need to see an actual decision.”Peter NicholasPeter Nicholas is a senior White House reporter for NBC News.Dan De LuceDan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. Julie Tsirkin, Garrett Haake and Gordon Lubold contributed.
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved