Russian Military Hit by Uncertainty as One General Is Killed and Another Remains Absent
Paul Sonne – July 12, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Gen. Sergei Surovikin. (Reuters)
One top commander has disappeared since a mutiny. Another was killed in an airstrike in Ukraine. Another accused his leadership of treachery after being fired. And a fourth former commander was gunned down while out on a jog in what may have been an organized hit.
The ranks of the Russian military have continued to be roiled by instability in the days since a short-lived insurrection by Wagner mercenaries three weeks ago, as pressures from Moscow’s nearly 17-month war reverberate across the armed forces.
On Wednesday, mystery deepened over the fate of Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the country’s former top commander in Ukraine, who has been dubbed “General Armageddon” for his ruthless tactics, and who has not been seen since the Wagner rebellion.
One of the country’s top lawmakers said, when pressed by a reporter, that the general was “taking a rest.”
“He is unavailable right now,” the lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the Russian Duma’s defense committee, added in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app before hurrying away from the reporter.
Surovikin was considered to be an ally of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary company, whose forces mounted the brief insurrection in late June aimed at toppling Russia’s military leadership before standing down in a deal with the Kremlin.
The New York Times reported that U.S. officials believe Surovikin had advance knowledge of the mutiny but do not know whether he participated. In the hours after the rebellion began, Russian authorities quickly released a video of the general calling on the Wagner fighters to stand down.
The lawmaker’s enigmatic comment about Surovikin came two days after Russian authorities released the first footage of the country’s top military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, since the insurrection.
In the video, Gerasimov was receiving a report from the Russian Aerospace Forces, which are run by Surovikin. But the person giving the update in the footage was Surovikin’s deputy, Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov.
Surovikin’s location is just one of the many mysteries that have arisen since the mutiny. Despite a deal announced by the Kremlin, under which Prigozhin would depart Russia for Belarus and avoid prosecution, the mercenary tycoon appears to have remained in Russia.
The Kremlin disclosed this week that Prigozhin and his top commanders met with President Vladimir Putin five days after the mutiny, raising many questions about what sort of deal had been struck with the former insurrectionists. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense said that Russian armed forces had been collecting Wagner’s weapons, ammunition, and military equipment.
The matériel is expected to be restored for further use. So far, the mercenary group has handed over thousands of small arms and heavy weapons, the ministry said, including rocket launch and mortar systems, anti-tank guns and multipurpose armored tractors.
Russia, meanwhile, received another blow to its top military ranks. Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, the deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, was killed in Ukraine during a Monday night missile strike on the occupied city of Berdiansk, one of the highest-level losses for Russia during the course of the war, Ukrainian authorities announced.
A Russian lawmaker and retired general, Andrei Gurulyov, confirmed Tsokov’s death in an appearance on state television Wednesday, saying he “died heroically.” The death recalled the early days of the war, when Ukrainian officials said they had killed about 12 generals on the front lines.
Gurulyov also released a recording late Wednesday of the commander of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, explaining to his troops why he was relieved from commanding the unit, which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia.
Popov described a “difficult situation with the senior leadership,” which led to him being relieved after he brought up problems on the battlefield, including the lack of counter battery fire and artillery reconnaissance stations, as well as deaths and injuries the force is suffering from enemy artillery fire.
Popov appeared to take aim at Gerasimov without naming him, saying that while Ukrainian forces couldn’t break through his army unit from the front, “our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating” the army unit “at the most difficult and tense moment.”
Russian authorities also arrested a Ukrainian man Wednesday on suspicion of gunning down a former Russian submarine commander, Capt. 2nd Rank Stanislav Rzhitsky, this week in the southern city of Krasnodar, where he had been serving as the deputy director of the city’s mobilization office.
Russian news outlets reported that Rzhitsky, who posted his running routes publicly on the exercise service Strava, was shot to death while jogging in a Krasnodar park.
On Tuesday, the day after the body was found, Ukrainian military intelligence said on its official Telegram account that Rzhitsky had commanded a submarine that was involved in missile attacks on Ukraine. Friends and relatives, however, told Russian news outlets that he had left active-duty military service before the February 2022 invasion.
The state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source in Russian law enforcement, reported that the man arrested Wednesday had admitted under questioning to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the killing.
Rzhitsky’s name had been entered in the online database Myrotvorets, which posts photographs, social media accounts and telephone numbers of people considered to have committed crimes against Ukraine.
A red stamp was added over his photograph on the database reading, “Liquidated.”
The hearing became the latest flashpoint for the FBI, which Republicans criticized for investigating participants at school board meetings or censoring social media posts. Democrats accused Republicans of trying to protect former President Donald Trump, who faces federal charges related to possession of national security documents after an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago 18 months after he left the White House. A White House spokesman said Republicans are attacking law enforcement.
In his opening salvo, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, cited a federal court decision in Louisiana eight days earlier that found the government suppressed First Amendment rights of people posting on social media posts about the COVID-19 pandemic vaccines and mask requirements, under a policy the ruling compared to an “Orwellian ministry of truth.”
The ruling found the FBI failed to alert social media companies that a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was real rather than Russian disinformation days before the 2020 presidential election. Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., said that deprived millions of voters of information before the election.
“When the court said the FBI misled, that’s a nice way of saying they lied,” Jordan said.
Wray said he has reviewed the decision and the FBI would comply with the court’s prohibition against influencing social media companies. But he declined to comment further because the case is subject to further litigation.
“Our focus is on malign, foreign disinformation – that is, foreign malign information, that is foreign hostile actors who engage in covert actions to confuse our social media platforms,” Wray said. “The FBI is not in the business of moderating content or causing any social media company to suppress or censor.”
Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on July 12, 2023.
GOP vows to oppose extension of intelligence surveillance policy
Jordan said Republicans and potentially Democrats would oppose the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the year, because of 204,000 episodes of “illegal scrutiny” of U.S. citizens.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said a court found that the illegitimate queries included several people linked to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The FBI has broken so bad that people can go and engage in queries that when you come before the Congress to answer questions, you’re blissfully ignorant,” Gaetz said. “The court has smacked you down, ruling FBI personnel apparently conducted queries for improper personal reasons.”
Wray said staffers had been disciplined for improper queries, but he couldn’t go into details.
Wray’s prepared statement said he is concerned about “profound risks” with proposals to require either a search warrant or court order before conducting a “U.S. person query” under Section 702 of the act. Wray said such a change would become a ban because applications either wouldn’t meet court standards or would take too long.
“That would be a body blow to the FBI, which relies on this longstanding, lawful capability to rapidly uncover previously hidden threats and connections, and to take swift steps to protect the homeland when needed,” Wray said.
Democrats have also questioned extending Section 702 without changes. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said
“The committee will need to look into warrant requirements,” Lofgren said.
“We have bipartisan support around the concerns we have about FISA reauthorization and unless we really understand what measures the FBI is taking to ensure that people’s privacy is protected, I think it’s going to be a very difficult reauthorization process,” added Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Wray agrees with Durham report on FBI missteps in Russia investigation
Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday, July 12, 2023.
A rare point of agreement arose in a discussion of former special counsel John Durham’s report on the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which was called Crossfire Hurricane.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., questioned why the FBI failed to consider information beneficial to suspects during Crossfire Hurricane. Cline also questioned whether the FBI abused its authority under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
“The American people are outraged” about agents who undermined the FBI’s reputation, Cline said.
“Certainly there were violations that were totally unacceptable and in my view cannot be allowed to happen again,” Wray said.
Cline also criticized the FBI’s warrantless queries on 3.4 million Americans in 2021 and 200,000 last year.
“It looks like a framework that enables the FBI to spy on countless Americans,” Cline said.
Wray: accusation he’s against conservatives ‘insane’
Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., called the Durham report and Russia investigation evidence of an unfair justice system and asked Wray how he would reform law enforcement.
“The American people fully understand that there is a two-tiered justice system that has been weaponized to persecute people based on their political beliefs and that you have personally worked to weaponize the FBI against conservatives,” Hageman said.
Wray disagreed with her description, but said the FBI already adopted changes such as a new leadership team and by removing people from the chain of command.
“The idea that I am biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me given my own personal background,” Wray said.
Jordan proposes to reduce FBI funding
Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday, July 12, 2023.
On Tuesday, Jordan recommended slashing the agency’s funding, including money for a proposed new headquarters building in the D.C. region. He also proposed to thwart Biden administration immigration policies, gun regulations and what he termed abusive law enforcement. Any spending changes will eventually be negotiated with Senate Democrats.
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee have received startling testimony about egregious abuses, misallocation of federal law-enforcement resources, and misconduct within the leadership ranks of the FBI,” Jordan said in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., noted that some Republican House members have called for defunding and dismantling the FBI. Lieu asked Wray what that would mean.
“We would have hundreds more violent criminals out on the street, dozens more violent gangs terrorizing communities, hundreds more child predators on the loose, hundreds more kids left at those predators’ mercy instead of being rescued, scores of threats from the Chinese community party being left unaddressed,” Wray said.
White House: House GOP attacking law enforcement
White House spokesman Ian Sams said “extreme House Republicans” have decided to attack law enforcement rather than support the FBI.
“Instead of attacking federal law enforcement for political purposes, House Republicans should join President Biden to stand up for law enforcement and put the rule of law and the safety and security of the American people ahead of themselves.”
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) prepares to gavel in the committee before Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday, July 12, 2023
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, accused Republicans of trying to protect Trump for his campaign in 2024 and called the hearing “little more than performance art.”
House Republicans questioned Wray’s priorities in investigating the Biden administration.
Gaetz asked Wray point blank whether he was protecting the Bidens, which Wray denied. “Absolutely not,” said Wray, who was appointed by Trump.
Gone in 60 seconds: At FBI director hearing, Republican conspiracies about Biden go ‘POOF!’
Rex Huppke, USA TODAY – July 12, 2023
House Republicans are convinced the FBI and the Department of Justice and basically any law enforcement agency that hasn’t found President Joe Biden guilty of being a global criminal mastermind is corrupt – CORRUPT, I TELL YOU! – and in cahoots with Democrats.
But the steaming hot conspiracy bubbles belching up from the right-wing fever swamps are occasionally pierced by facts, and a rather thunderous bubble-popping took place Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring FBI Director Christopher Wray.
‘Are you protecting the Bidens?’ and other really dumb questions
Rep. Matt Gaetz railed at Wray and the FBI for not finding greater criminality in the actions of the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and for not linking Joe Biden in with the hysterical, evidence-free allegations Republicans have cooked up.
“You seem deeply uncurious about it don’t you? Almost suspiciously uncurious?” asked Gaetz, R-Fla., sounding like a cartoon villain, only dumber. “Are you protecting the Bidens?”
FBI Director Christopher Wray listens to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, during a hearing on July 12, 2023.
It was all just a giant load of nonsense, which makes sense, as the House Republicans’ current motto is: “A giant load of nonsense.”
OK, who let a Republican ask a smart and relevant question? THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS!!
But then, in less than a minute, one line of questioning made the GOP’s entire line of hooey about the FBI having it in for Republicans and being in the bag for Biden go poof.
Buck said: “You were nominated by Republican President (George. W.) Bush for the position of assistant attorney general in the criminal division at the Department of Justice and you were confirmed by a Republican Senate?”
Buck continued: “And you were then nominated by Republican President Donald Trump to be the FBI director and again confirmed by a Republican Senate for that position?”
“Yes,” Wray said. “I think there were only five votes against me and they were all from Democrats.”
Buck concluded: “According to Wikipedia, you’re still a registered Republican, and I hope you don’t change your party affiliation after this hearing is over.”
So the Republicans who want to defund and discredit the FBI, the ones who eagerly dragged the FBI director through the mud Wednesday with absurd allegations grounded in zero facts, want you, the American people, to believe this: The nation’s premier law enforcement agency has been weaponized against Republicans under a director who is a lifelong Republican and who reached his current post by being selected and confirmed to positions by two Republican presidents and two Republican-led Senate bodies.
Even as a conspiracy theory the GOP’s anti-FBI theory doesn’t make sense
Forget that all this is in defense of former President Donald Trump, a one-term, twice-impeached lifelong con artist who now faces more than 70 felony charges in two cases, with more indictments on the horizon.
Before you even get into details of the conspiracies, you have to believe the FBI director at the center of it all is corrupt. And he was appointed first by President Bush and then again by President Trump! This conspiracy is now an unusually large footprint shy of Bigfoot.
Ticks take multiple hours, sometimes up to two days, to transmit any diseases to their hosts.
Everything we know about tick bite symptoms seems to have been watered down to a single telltale warning sign: the bullseye rash. If no red rings show up around the site of your tick bite, then you’re fine, right? Not necessarily, according to the experts.
There are plenty of tick bite symptoms that warrant a visit to your doctor’s office. While increasingly common (and now of concern year-round in some parts of the country), tick bites are not something to take lightly. The health consequences can range from an irritated bite mark that lasts a few weeks to a serious illness that lands you in the hospital or with chronic complaints.
We spoke with public health entomology expert Phurchhoki Sherpa, coordinator for the Purdue University Public Health Entomology Program. Medical entomology is a fancy term for the area of medicine concerning insect-borne diseases like Lyme and malaria. Sherpa has spent countless hours in the field collecting ticks for research purposes, and she knows more than her fair share about what can happen when a tick bites you.
A bullseye rash might emerge around a tick bite. It could also show up on other parts of the body where the bite didn’t occur.
What to Do When a Tick Bites You
If you find a tick latched onto your skin, first you should review how to remove a tick and follow that procedure. (Quick refresher: grab your tweezers or tick removal tool, grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, and pull until it releases.) The best immediate tick bite treatment options involve cleaning the bite with some sort of disinfectant—hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol are good options—and applying an antibiotic ointment of your choosing. Your tick bite may look and feel like any other bug bite in the days that follow, or you may find that an angry, itchy bump persists for weeks as it heals.
“It can look as benign as a mosquito bite, like a little itchy welt, especially if the tick has fallen off without you realizing you had it,” Sherpa tells Outdoor Life. She notes that such circumstances are common with tiny, immature ticks that are hard to see. “It can also look kind of scary, with a scab on the bite mark. It varies.”
A tick bite might start out looking and feeling like any average bug bite.
Common Tick Bite Symptoms
Sherpa is referring to the rashes, scabs, and swelling that can accompany a tick bite. Always keep an eye out for a bullseye rash (the traditional symptom that is present in some, though not all, Lyme disease cases). A bullseye rash can appear not just around the bite mark, but anywhere on the body. Small, hard scabs might form around the bite. If they’re dark and crusty, this might be an early sign of a type of tick-borne disease known as spotted fever (more on this in a minute). If the bite mark exhibits other signs of infection, like extreme swelling, pustules, blistering, or anything else abnormal, seek medical treatment immediately.
Beyond the early, visible symptoms of a tick bite, be on the lookout for these more systemic symptoms that most or all tick-borne illnesses share. These symptoms might pop up anywhere from a day to a few weeks after the bite:
Fever
Chills
Headache
Muscle ache
Fatigue
Nausea/vomiting
Joint aches/arthritic pain
Tick-Borne Illnesses You Should Know About
Most tick bites will not cause you any further trauma than a mosquito bite would. After all, half or fewer of all ticks are infected with transmissible diseases. If the tick wasn’t latched deep into your skin or wasn’t engorged with blood yet, it probably didn’t get the chance to transmit anything. For example, it usually takes at least 36 hours for an attached tick to transmit Lyme disease to its human host.
But if your tick bite does transform into something of concern, it’s good to know about the various tick-borne illnesses you could develop. The risk of each tick-borne illness changes depending on where in North America you picked up the tick, Sherpa says. This is because different types of ticks carry different diseases.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever can cause a dotted, patchy rash once the disease has progressed. The rash is especially common in children.
This is not an exhaustive list of all possible tick-borne illnesses. But here are eight tick-borne diseases that you should absolutely know about.
Regions: Most common in East and Upper Midwest, some cases along Pacific Coast and portions of Southwest Ticks that carry it: Black-legged ticks, Eastern and Western Symptoms:
Chills
Headache/muscle aches
Nausea/vomiting/diarrhea
Respiratory issues
Bleeding issues
Organ failure
Type of disease: Bacterial Treatment: Antibiotics, commonly Doxycycline
Regions: Northeast and Upper Midwest Ticks that carry it: Black-legged ticks, especially nymphs (tiny, immature ticks that are hard to see) Symptoms:
Fever
Chills/sweats
Headache/body aches
Nausea/loss of appetite
Fatigue
Type of disease: Parasitic Treatment: Unnecessary if asymptomatic. For symptomatic patients, a combination of anti-parasitic/antifungal drugs and antibiotics.
Regions: Southeastern and South-central U.S., from East Coast to West Texas Ticks that carry it: Lone Star tick, some Eastern black-legged ticks Symptoms:
Fever
Chills
Severe headache/muscle aches
Splotchy or dotted rash (especially in children)
Confusion
Nausea/diarrhea/loss of appetite
Brain swelling and damage to nervous system
Respiratory failure
Uncontrolled bleeding
Organ failure
Death
Type of disease: Bacterial Treatment: Antibiotics, commonly Doxycycline
Regions: Northeast, Great Lakes region Ticks that carry it: Black-legged tick, Groundhog tick, Squirrel tick Symptoms:
Often asymptomatic
Fever
Headache
Vomiting
Weakness
Encephalitis (Brain infection)
Meningitis (Swelling of brain and spinal cord)
Type of disease: Viral Treatment: Fluids and pain medication, severe cases should seek hospitalization for IV fluids, meds, and support with any brain/spinal cord swelling or respiratory issues
Regions: Nationwide, most common in Mid-Atlantic and lower Appalachia Ticks that carry it: American dog tick, Rocky Mountain wood tick, Brown dog tick Symptoms:
Fever
Headache
Rash (splotchy or dotted)
Nausea/vomiting
Stomach pain
Muscle pain
RMSF develops quickly and can cause moderate to severe damage to tissues and extremities if left untreated. Amputations might be necessary. Hearing loss, paralysis, and loss of mental function are also possible.
Type of disease: Bacterial Treatment: Antibiotics, commonly Doxycycline
Tick Bite Prevention
Fortunately, with proper tick bite prevention, there’s no reason to avoid the outdoors—especially not during the most enjoyable months of the year.
Dress, Treat, and Check
Tick bite prevention goes beyond simply drowning yourself in the best tick repellent. It also involves wearing the right clothes, treating your gear with permethrin, and doing multiple tick checks in the field and after the day is over.
“I tell [hikers] to wear light-colored clothing so they can detect ticks earlier and faster, especially the ones that would go unnoticed if we wore patterns or dark clothing,” Sherpa says. “Tuck your shirt into your pants, tuck your pant legs into your socks, always wear close-toed shoes with long socks when you’re outdoors.”
Sherpa also acknowledges that hunters have to do things a little differently if they want to avoid tick bites and the scary symptoms that can come with them. We spend more time bushwhacking than we do on trails, we wear dark and patterned clothing (hello camouflage), and we’re outside for a long time.
“When you’re hunting, you’re in the field for a while. You’re waiting, walking around. So do a tick check every few hours. The faster you can find the tick and get rid of it, the better,” she says. “When you get home, check yourself and your camo clothing. If you have a dryer, put your clothes in the dryer on high heat for about 20 minutes. The heat will decimate the ticks. And the sooner you can take a shower, the better.”
If showers and dryers are unavailable back at camp, or you refuse to put your expensive merino wool or rain gear in a dryer, treating your clothes with permethrin is the best line of defense. Make sure to follow the instructions on the bottle and wear gloves to avoid getting any on your skin.
Parts of the Body Likely to Get Tick Bites
When it comes to tick checks, close attention to detail makes all the difference. Check under your armpits, behind your ears, along your hairline, in your groin area, between your toes, behind your knees, and even in your belly button. Sherpa highlights all these spots as dark, easy-to-overlook hiding holes for ticks of all sizes.
If your legs and arms are bare, not only is there a chance they bite your ankles or inside your elbows, but they could also crawl under your shirt or shorts. By wearing long sleeves and pants and tucking in all your layers, you limit a tick’s chances of accessing any skin, let alone skin in a hard-to-reach place.
Tick Bite FAQs
What happens to a tick after it bites you?
Once a tick latches on and starts feeding, it will suck blood for several days before eventually becoming fully engorged and falling off. This “blood meal” gives the tick the nutrition it needs to develop into its next life phase.
What kills ticks on humans?
The only way to kill a tick on a human is by removing it properly and disposing of it by crushing it between tweezers and throwing it away. Don’t listen to any advice that involves burning the tick, dousing it in nail polish remover, or squirting hand sanitizer all over it. None of these tricks will get the tick to detach.
How do you treat a tick bite?
The best immediate tick bite treatment involves disinfecting the small wound and putting an antibiotic ointment on it. Hydrogen peroxide, antiseptic wipes, and rubbing alcohol are all great options for quick disinfecting. If you’re in a serious pinch, you can use an alcohol-based mouthwash or even a few drops from your flask of campfire whiskey. After that, apply an antibiotic ointment. To treat underlying symptoms of a tick-borne disease, see your doctor.
If your hike or hunt will take you through tall grass, take the necessary preventative measures to avoid tick bites.
Final Thoughts
Tick bite symptoms can range from a small, itchy welt to a series of flu-like ailments that could land you in the hospital if left untreated. That’s why it’s crucial to know what types of ticks live in your area and what diseases they might carry.
The good news is that these scary tick-borne diseases with their array of side effects are all avoidable, thanks to the time-tested prevention strategies outdoorswomen and men now swear by. The age-old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure holds true, Sherpa says.
“We as humans are lazy. We don’t like dealing with that extra work. But prevention goes a long way when it comes to tick bites and tick-borne diseases. It is really important to take preventative measures when you go out,” Sherpa says. “If people aren’t sure about the worthiness of prevention measures, they should talk to someone who has had a tick-borne disease before.”
DeSantis Says No Thanks to $377 Million in Federal Energy Funds
Ari Natter – July 11, 2023
DeSantis says no to federal energy funds
(Bloomberg) — Florida Republican Governor and 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis quietly rejected hundreds of millions of dollars in federal energy funding, as the Biden administration touts the benefits of its marquee climate law on the campaign trail in battleground states.
The funding, totaling about $377 million, included hundreds of millions of dollars for energy-efficiency rebates and electrification as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as money from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that became law in 2021.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’s Office of Energy notified the Energy Department last month it was “respectfully” withdrawing applications for the funds after DeSantis issued a line-item veto for a $5 million federal grant for the state to set up programs to distribute the rebates.
The move comes as US President Joe Biden and others have taken to the road to show how funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and other administration policies are helping Republican states, even as every single Republican voted against approving his signature climate law – which included some $374 billion in funding for clean-energy programs and tax credits.
It also comes amid Republican backlash against “woke” energy-efficiency standards, including from DeSantis himself who has proposed spending millions of dollars to enact tax credits for gas stoves.
A Florida government official, speaking on background, said the $5 million in funding was earmarked to hire people to administer the money for the energy efficiency home-rebate program, including a website and other necessary planning to distribute the funds. The official, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about the matter, characterized the decision as surprising.
DeSantis also rejected a $24 million federal grant from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that would have been used to upgrade rural waste-water systems. These grant funds were among some $511 million in line-item vetoes made by DeSantis before signing the state’s $116.5 million budget into law last month.
Following the governor’s move, applications for grant funding totaling some $377 million were withdrawn, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That included nearly $174 million set aside for rebates for energy-efficiency improvements and another $173 million for a rebate program for the purchase of energy-efficient home appliances. Another $7 million was poised for a training program for electrification contractors.
“These programs directly benefit home owners and renters and these rebates mean that people in Florida would get lower utility bills and healthier and more comfortable homes as well as lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said Lowell Ungar, director of federal policy for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “The federal money will help pay for that so it will be a real loss if they don’t implement these programs.”
A DeSantis spokesman declined to comment.
An administration official said Florida still has the option of applying for the funding at a later time.
DeSantis’ rejection of the funds was first reported by The Capitolist, a blog with ties to NextEra Energy Inc.’s Florida Power & Light Co., a state utility.
A total of 21.6 million households now spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent. Some households are even paying even up to 50% of earnings on apartments, per Harvard’s research. Housing experts often suggest tenants spend less than 30% of their income on rent.
“Housing costs remain well above pre-pandemic levels thanks to the substantial increases over the last few years,” Daniel McCue, senior research associate at the Joint Center, said in the 2023 report.
Why? In large part due to the growth of so-called “luxury” buildings that have replaced less expensive options. In the last two decades, the share of construction for high-priced apartments — known as Class A — grew faster than more affordable ones. In fact, over half (51%) of 2022 rental construction projects were luxury apartments, according to Moody’s Analytics data. Also, only 34% of the market consisted of high-cost rental unitsback in 2000; that number was 51% in Q1 2023, per Moody’s.
“The challenge is that the new supply… tends to be at the very top of the price spectrum,” said Carl Whitaker, director of research and analysis at RealPage.
Apartments are seen undergoing construction on February 28, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“If rent grows faster than your income every year, and your health care expenses grow faster than your income every year…that squeeze just makes it very difficult in normal life,” Katherine McKay, associate director at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, told Yahoo Finance.
Lack of choices
Historically low rental vacancies in recent years also reflect the lack of affordable options for households. Although the vacancy rate climbed to 6.4% at the beginning of 2023 — a welcome increase from the four-decade low of 5.2% in late 2021 — it is still far from a healthy rate of around 7% to 8%.
“What is often looked for is a level of vacancy that supports a renter’s ability to move and to have at least some pricing power,” Lu Chen, Moody’s Analytics senior economist, wrote in an email. “In theory, this would allow rent increases to remain marginally above the general rate of price increases in the economy.”
But “we expect the national average vacancy to linger around 5% until 2025,” Chen said. That number could be more bleak for lower-income households — the rate for lower-cost housing remains at a depressed level of 4.7%.
Buddy, can you spare a studio? A ‘no vacancy’ sign for rentals is displayed outside an apartment building on September 22, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allison Dinner/Getty Images)
“What [also] has happened in many places is that renters who might buy homes can’t buy homes, so they stay in their class A buildings, and then renters who want to live in Class A buildings can’t find spots, so they move a tier down,” McKay said. “It trickles down every income group having a greater competition for fewer new units that meet their needs.”
Apartments equipped with the latest and best amenities like heated pools and gyms are known as Class A buildings. Class A buildings then retire to become class B in 10-15 years, which then devolve into class C in another 5-10 years. Rents drop as buildings downgrade from A to B to C. But in the last decade, not enough buildings were built, which means not enough apartments progressed to the lower tiers.
Live it up: Apartments equipped with the latest and best amenities that get premium rents are known as Class A buildings. (Getty Images)
But that might not change anytime soon because, many times, fancy apartments are the only profitable option for developers. The majority of construction costs go into purchasing land, building materials, and building permits. Adding nice finishes doesn’t drive costs at a high level but could demand more rent revenue.
“The thorny part is that for the middle-income renters,” McKay said. “The best option for them is class B where it is not super expensive but also not where then the quality might be a problem, the sweet spot. But there just isn’t enough, because we didn’t build enough for such a long time.”
The future? Not too cheery.
“Number of households continued to grow at around 1% annually,” Moody’s Chen said. “The rapid household formation requires inventory growth to keep up the pace. Further, while the population is aging, there is a large swath of Gen Z (the oldest are 24) and 25- to 40-year-old millennials that are ready to enter the rental market.”
Rebecca Chen is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and previously worked as an investment tax certified public accountant (CPA).
In surreal scenes on Capitol Hill on Tuesday – that featured representatives of 9/11 victim groups sat behind PGA Tour executives as they were grilled in a Senate hearing – it also emerged that the Tour asked for Greg Norman to be sacked as LIV Golf chief executive after the framework agreement was completed.
As well as this ouster, there were bizarre proposals from the Public Investment Fund for Yasir Al-Rumayyan – the PIF governor who is chairman of Newcastle United as well as LIV – to be granted membership of Augusta National and the R&A.
It must be stressed that these were all merely suggestions proffered in the build-up to last month’s hastily-announced alliance that shook the sport to its core following two years of bitter infighting between the revel circuit and the traditional powers.
The PGA Tour’s Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne were sworn in before the Senate committee – AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
The PGA Tour told Telegraph Sport that it summarily rejected the McIlroy-Woods idea and refused to assist in Al-Rumayyan joining perhaps the two most august clubs in the game.
Yet at the very least the 276-page trove of documents released by the Senate sub-committee on Tuesday, highlight the extraordinary levels of horse-trading that could take place as the parties attempt to reach a solution that unifies the game and, just as pertinently, satisfies each of the two sides in terms of finance and power.
The proposals from Amanda Staveley – the English financier who oversaw PIF’s purchase of Newcastle – inevitably command the headlines, despite PGA Tour executive Jimmy Dunne’s admission to the politicians that “if LIV takes five players a year for five years, they can gut us”. Goodness knows what McIlroy and Woods will make of Staveley’s “Best of both worlds” presentation which was made in the first phase of the peace talks in late April.
It featured several bullet points, the first of which stated that Woods and McIlroy should have their own LIV teams and play “in at least 10 LIV events’’. Even if he agreed, the chances of Woods playing in that many LIV tournaments after a car crash two years ago that almost saw him lose his right leg are negligible to the point of being impossible.
It will be interesting to see if Woods was told anything about being named in the early negotiations, because a few weeks ago, he claims to have been completely in the dark about intentions that came to light of the Tour having him railing against LIV to his fellow pros in the midst of the civil war.
The same applies to McIlroy. The Northern Irishman was the most vocal opponent of LIV and expressed his anger at being used as “a sacrificial lamb” by the Tour after Sawgrass HQ’s remarkable about-turn. He was in a dark mood after discovering – at the same time as everyone else – about the amalgamation and reiterated that he still detested the breakaway league.
“I still hate LIV – hate it,” he said. “I hope it goes away”. McIlroy refused to play in Saudi Arabia when it became a venue on the DP World Tour, citing concerns about “the source” and although his attitude has since softened – “if they are going to invest money in golf it is better than it is on the PGA Tour” – it must be highly doubtful that, after he has said, that he would ever play under the LIv brand. Norman or no Norman.
The Australian’s future at the LIV helm was under speculation months before the merger was unveiled, with both McIlroy and Woods insisting that he had to leave the role before peace could break out.
It was known that Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, wanted him out after so many criticisms and his desire is laid bare in emails between him and his negotiators. In a side letter to the agreement, the firing of Norman was billed as a necessity, although the PGA Tour revealed on Tuesday that it was never signed. Norman remains in the job. For now.
Whether he can trust his paymasters, however, is a moot point, regardless of the chairman’s attendance at both the LIV events in the Costa del Sol and in Hertfordshire over the last two weeks. At Valderrama and the Centurion Club, Al-Rumayyan assured LIV players and staff that the league will continue, despite the fact the framework agreement states that Monahan will have the right to terminate the circuit if an agreement is finalised.
In the event of an ultimate deal, Staveley is seemingly determined to make sure that as well as being chairman of the new company, Al-Rumayyan is also installed as the president of the International Golf Federation and is welcomed as a member at Augusta and the Royal and Ancient. This proposal was also in her presentation, though she actually asked for him to be a member of the R&A, which is not a club.
An R&A insider revealed “this is the first we’ve heard of this”. On another jaw-dropping day in the LIV saga, uncertainty still reigns supreme.
Andrey Rublev: I do not deserve support of Wimbledon crowd because I am Russian
Molly McElwee – July 11, 2023
Andrey Rublev was cheered on by the Centre Court crowd against Novak Djokovic – Shutterstock/Tolga Akmen
Andrey Rublev admitted he felt like he “does not deserve” the support of the Wimbledon crowd, due to being Russian.
Rublev, 25, missed last year’s tournament along with his compatriots and all Belarusian players, due to Wimbledon imposing a ban in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Upon his return this year he reached the quarter-finals, and on Tuesday had the Centre Court crowd on their feet on more than one occasion as they tried to will him on against Novak Djokovic.
After bowing out in four sets, Rublev said he felt “grateful” that the British public had got behind him, especially considering where he is from.
”I felt really great support during all these two weeks. Today, as well. To be from the country where I am, to have this support, it’s special. I don’t know, I feel sometimes I don’t deserve it or something like that. To have it, I don’t know… I don’t know what you need to do to have this support. I’m really grateful for this.”
Ever since the war broke out, Rublev has been a leading Russian voice in opposition to the conflict. In fact, the night before the invasion began in February 2022, he made headlines around the world for writing “no war please” on a camera lens after his match in Dubai.
Asked whether he felt guilty to hail from Russia, Rublev said he did not: “No. I don’t know what to say. I made so many statements. I think my opinion is very clear, so it’s not guilty. It’s more just the situation is terrible. Of course, you don’t wish this on anyone. You want these terrible things to be able to finish as fast as possible for all the people in the world just to have a chance to have a good life.”
Rublev played some brilliant tennis on his way to the last-eight – AFP/Daniel Leal
Rublev’s comments followed a weekend of high tensions at Wimbledon, where the war in Ukraine played a central role.
On Sunday Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka was booed off court after losing to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the crowd seemingly unaware that it was Svitolina who had opted out of their handshake.
While other players from last year’s banned list have had unpleasant moments with the crowd, Rublev only had good feedback.
On the eve of Wimbledon, he told Telegraph Sport that he was glad the tournament was giving extra support to Ukrainian players competing here and also said he had received support from fans ahead of arriving at the Championships.
”Being here this year, I felt grateful,” Rublev said on Tuesday. “I’m happy that I was able to have a really, really good two weeks of my tennis. I’m happy that I was able, I think for the first time, to give my best in a quarter-final so far compared to all the other quarters that I have been in. This one I feel proud of myself for the first time.”
WANTAGH, NEW YORK – JULY 07: A new shark-monitoring drone monitors the waters for sharks as people swim at Jones Beach State Park on July 07, 2023 in Wantagh, New York. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that local beach communities on Long Island and New York City will receive shark-monitoring drones as the state addresses beachgoer safety in response to shark sightings over the 4th of July holiday and reports of people being bitten by sharks at some of New York’s most popular beaches. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)More
Try not to think about the ocean. Because if you’re the type of person prone to listless anxiety, a simple question – What’s a submersible? Where do orcas live? – might take you to a deep, dark place. A place like the Hadal Zone, named for the Greek god of hell, where there is absolutely no light and the only creatures that can survive the crushing pressure are characterized by their transparent, gooey skin. Or maybe a place in the Gulf of Mexico called the “Hot Tub of Despair,” an underwater lake full of methane that kills any organism that enters it. Or perhaps a remote part of the Pacific Ocean that has earned the nickname “White Shark Cafe.”
We are having a “Jaws” Girl Summer. It’s giving Moby-Dick Energy. We’re in our Ancient Mariner Era. Is the ocean more terrifying than usual this year, or are we suddenly just more aware of how terrifying the ocean can be?
Here’s an illustrative roundup of recent horrors. Orcas have trained one another to attack boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Over the July Fourth holiday, four people were bitten by sharks on New York beaches, and approximately 200 people needed to be rescued from rip currents in Virginia and North Carolina. A man on a fishing trip to a Freeport, Tex., beach last month arrived to discover that tens of thousands of dead fish had washed ashore. Homes in the Outer Banks are toppling into the waves.
Don’t forget the beach where severed human feet wash ashore on a regular basis in a northwest Washington county that recently announced that it is crowdfunding an investigation to identify a recent set of remains. Or the awful video of the teen who jumped off the party boat in the Bahamas in May, only to be swallowed up by the inky black water, and never seen again. Or the fact that Japan is planning to release more than 1 million cubic meters of treated radioactive water – approximately 500 Olympic-size swimming pools, an amount that is considered “safe” – from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific this summer.
Then there was the OceanGate catastrophe, which made millions of people ponder the specifics of an excruciating death: Trapped at the bottom of the ocean in a claustrophobic metal coffin-like tube, in a dark blacker than any night, with 96 hours of oxygen left to contemplate the unlikelihood of rescue and your imminent suffocation. What actually happened was no less horrific, but somehow seemed kinder: being crushed to death in milliseconds by as much as 6,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.
In the ocean, that’s a good way to go.
That’s what Alexandria Neonakis realized during the days she spent transfixed by the submersible crisis.
“At every step, every fact that you learned about it” – The video game controllers! The strange knocking noises! The fact that it was bolted shut from the outside! – “was so much worse, and it kept getting worse,” says the 38-year-old artist. “Social media just enabled that to go even crazier, because it takes your imagination and it amplifies it, because everybody’s thinking insane things,” such as: Did one of the rich men on the submersible kill another one of the rich men to conserve oxygen?
The speculation became “a feeding frenzy,” she says. Which is yet another terrifying thing you find in the ocean.
Space is also a terrifying void, but “that’s pretty far. I don’t have to worry about that,” Neonakis says. She does not have a quarter of a million dollars to spend on space tourism, so she won’t end up on a rocket anytime soon. And, yes, that’s the same price the now-defunct OceanGate charged people for a trip down to the wreckage of the Titanic, but unlike space, you can get swept away by the ocean for free. “It’s like, right there,” Neonakis says. Near Los Angeles. Where she lives.
The term for fear of the ocean is thalassophobia. Myths about deep-sea monsters can be found in ancient cultures from all across the globe. “The lack of adoration, desire for interaction, or simply fear itself, towards the deep sea is not irrational but rather primal,” wrote a team of marine researchers in a 2021 paper examining why the public seems to not care about deep-sea exploration as much as space exploration. We associate “up” with heaven, and “down” with hell.
And the fear of the unknown, combined with the vastness of a seemingly infinite horizon and improbability of rescue, makes great horror fodder, which is why the ocean has been the setting for so many scary movies. Most are fiction, such as “The Meg” and “The Shallows,” but some, such as 2003’s “Open Water,” about a couple mistakenly left to die during a scuba expedition, are based on true stories. As “Jaws” taught us, you don’t have to be out in the deep ocean to encounter its frights: Just last week, a dorsal fin popped up at Navarre Beach near Pensacola, Fla., prompting a chaotic scramble amid screams of, “Get out of the water!” Jellyfish wrap their tentacles around an ankle. Stingrays slink around the shallows. Something you can’t see just brushed past your thigh.
Mark Fryers, a British researcher who studies media representations of marine culture, says he wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually get a movie based on the ill-fated submersible.
“The sea is something of a castigating mirror: It reflects back our bad deeds,” Fryers says. “We know we’re creating, as a species, more damage in the ocean. It comes back to haunt us. It all washes back to us. There’s a pervasive sense of death and decline and self-examination.”
The problem, too, is that we focus on the unlikely catastrophes and ignore the more commonplace ones: A coast guard that allows a boat full of migrants to capsize. An ocean that is rapidly warming. Microplastics. Instead, we think about the sharp fangs of the anglerfish, or the tentacles of a colossal squid, or the spindly six-foot-long (!) legs of the Japanese spider crab. Those glow-in-the-dark fish with a bajillion fangs. Something called a goblin shark. Even the most delicious creatures in the ocean can be kind of gross, when you think about it: As a popular meme reminds us, shrimps is bugs.
Even if those creatures don’t give you anxiety, there is one that might: the great white shark.
We may have been hearing more about sharks lately – Cape Cod has become “one of the largest white shark hotspots in the world,” according to Scientific American – but it’s been a pretty typical year so far, says Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida.
“We’ve had a similar number of bites thus far this year as we did at this stage last year,” Naylor tells us via email. “Every year people seem to think ‘This year is different.’ I guess they must forget how they felt this time last year.”
It’s related to a phenomenon researchers call “sea blindness,” which sounds like something that afflicted pirates and castaways, but is actually contemporary: It refers to how oceanic issues “tend to disappear from our consciousness, our daily life,” Fryers says, until an event or flash point brings them abruptly back. Like the submersible.
“Every horrifying story about the ocean is so f—ing horrifying. It’s not like it’s a little horrifying. It’s like, ‘Wow, that’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard,'” Neonakis says. Better to just brave the myriad horrors on dry land.
‘It’s brutal’: As premiums continue to soar, another home insurer is leaving Florida
Alex Harris, Lawrence Mower – July 11, 2023
Pedro Portal/pportal@miamiherald.com
Another insurer is leaving Florida, where homeowners are paying more than ever for insurance, despite the state’s attempt to shore up the wobbling market.
Tuesday, Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people. It’s the fourth company to leave the Florida market in the last year — most citing rising risks from hurricanes. Farmers, a large company with a national presence, also has reduced new business in California, citing extreme weather and wild fire threats.
“This business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure,” the company wrote in a statement.
Farmers said the decision to withdraw affects about 30% of its overall policies around the state, but not ones issued through its subsidiary companies. Those — including auto insurer Bristol West and home insurer Foremost — are unaffected.
The company declined to speak on the record about how many people would lose coverage. Figures from Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation show that Farmers has about 93,000 current home and auto policies, but an industry source suggests that number is currently closer to 100,000.
The day before Farmers made the decision public, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis tweeted that his office has “zero communication” with the company and vowed to “explore every avenue possible for holding them accountable” for leaving Florida.
Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation said in a statement that the office was reviewing Farmers’ notice, which was sent to the office on Monday and marked a “trade secret,” limiting what regulators could say about it.
Under state law, insurers are required to give 120 days’ notice to customers before their policies are dropped. Customers who receive a notice are encouraged to contact their agent immediately to find alternative coverage, the office said in a statement.
Later Tuesday, the office also formally chastised Farmers for not giving the office a heads-up before deciding to pull out of the state. In a letter, Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworksy also noted that Farmers made the decision to leave Florida “independently” of the state’s insurance reforms.
“We are disappointed by the hastiness in this decision and troubled by how this decision may have cascading impacts to policyholders,” Yaworsky wrote. “Farmers has noted this decision only impacts about 26.6% percent of their Florida policyholders, but any impact which impacts policyholders should not be taken lightly.”
Leaving despite reforms
Tuesday’s announcement follows a mid-June decision from Farmers to stop writing new policies in Florida due to the skyrocketing costs of hurricane recovery and rebuilding.
“With catastrophe costs at historically high levels and reconstruction costs continuing to climb, we implemented a pause on writing new homeowners policies to more effectively manage our risk exposure,” Farmers said in a statement.
Notably, Farmers did not mention lawsuits, which has been the main culprit Florida insurers point to when asked why costs are rising so fast. However, financial autopsies of failed insurers in Florida regularly point to excessive payouts, high salaries and fees to affiliated companies as the main problem that leads to bankruptcy.
The decision by Farmers follows years of turmoil in the state’s property insurance market, triggered by a series of hurricanes starting in 2017. Floridians pay the highest property insurance premiums in the nation, and 13 companies have gone insolvent in recent years. Many others have stopped writing new policies or pulled out of Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers have responded by making it harder to sue insurance companies and assigning $3 billion to help them withstand storm seasons. A report by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation released last week indicated that the industry broke even during the first quarter of 2023, after years of heavy losses.
But the legislation has failed to reduce premiums for homeowners. Premiums continue to go up, according to the office’s report. Between November and March, rates increased 5% in Miami-Dade County, to an average of $5,665.
But the rate increases were higher in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, rising 9.5% and 9.25%, respectively. Homeowners in Hillsborough County are paying an average of $2,752 and $3,210 in Pinellas County.
Friedlander said the average premium in Florida is 42% higher than last year’s and miles ahead of the average premium nationwide — $1,700.
“It’s brutal, said Vince Perri, head of Key Biscayne-based public adjuster firm Elite Resolutions. “The premiums are through the roof. It’s always been high here but it’s worse now.”
Perri, who’s been in the business for more than a decade, said he sees the back-to-back storms in recent years as a major factor in rising prices. Hurricane Ian last year was Florida’s most expensive storm, causing more than $109 billion in damages across the state.
If Florida can scrape by a few more years without a hurricane landfall, Perri said, he believes insurance costs will start to go down again.
“It’s going to take a couple of years for the market to level out again,” he said. “I think insurance premiums are going to be high for awhile.”
