The surge in consumer prices recorded earlier this year amid Western sanctions has been gradually subsiding
Annual inflation in Russia slowed during the week ending December 19, according to official data released on Thursday by Rosstat, the country’s official statistics agency.
The weekly inflation report showed prices having decreased by 0.3% against the previous week to reach 12.35% in year-on-year terms.
The price increases in the food segment slowed to 0.10% from 0.15% a week earlier due to a drop in the cost of fruit and vegetables. Rosstat noted that the prices on certain food items even fell below last year’s levels.
The non-food sector also recorded deflation, of 0.03%, mainly due to a decline in prices on electricity and household appliances. Prices on travel and tourism services fell 0.18% owing to a decrease in the cost of airline tickets and hotels, the report noted.
Inflation in Russia spiked to a 20-year high of nearly 18% in April against the backdrop of Ukraine-related Western sanctions. It has been gradually dropping in the subsequent months as the economy started to recover, trade flows were reoriented and the ruble strengthened. The indicator is still far above the central bank’s 4% target, however.
The Ministry of Economic Development forecasts annual inflation in Russia finishing this year at 12.4% and dropping to 5.5% next year. The central bank has issued similar forecasts, predicting a drop to 5-7% in 2023, and for price growth to fall to as low as 4% by 2024.
President Joe Biden turned 80 on Nov. 20, and so far, he has given every indication he plans to run for reelection in 2024. If he were to win, his second term would conclude not long after his 86th birthday.
Too old?
One of Biden’s would-be opponents has previously said he thinks not. Former President Donald Trump, 76, who has announced he will run again, once declared, “I would never say anyone is too old,” adding at the time that Biden and other rival candidates were making him “look very young.”
America is being led by a president well into what most people would describe as old age. But as Trump pointed out, there’s old and then there’s “old.”
Most people associate “old” with changes that go beyond a few gray hairs. As people grow old, inevitably, the heart works harder, the skin feels different, sight and hearing weaken and energy declines. Yet we all know people who seem to defy old age, working effectively and energetically well into their 80s.
The Constitution requires presidents to be at least 35 years old, but it sets no upper limit, and clearly some octogenarians are more capable than others.
Without directly addressing Biden’s age, Vice Adm. Vivek Murthy, America’s surgeon general, acknowledged as much to the Tribune Editorial Board earlier this month. “There is such a wide range between your actual age and how you perform and function and show up in the world,” Murthy observed.
“Thanks in part to advances in medicine and a greater understanding about how to stay healthy through a combination of nutrition, physical activity, medical interventions and sleep and focus on mental health,” Murthy said, “we’re learning how people can be functional and contribute to society and enjoy their lives at ages that 30 or 40 years ago people would not have thought possible.”
Research supports Murthy’s perspective.
A recent survey of 2,000 Americans pinpointed the age at which people consider themselves old at a surprisingly low 57. The World Health Organization states that in most of the developed world, old age is considered to begin at a still-surprisingly low 60.
.Republican President Ronald Reagan, 73 at the time, gave a famous answer to the “too-old” question at a 1984 debate against Democratic nominee Walter Mondale, who was 56. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” Reagan said. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even Mondale laughed.
Leading up to the midterm elections, most Democratic candidates carefully avoided stating that Biden is too old to run again, even if they were thinking it. The president has said he will discuss running for reelection with his family over the holidays and announce a decision early next year.
We believe Americans should take Murthy’s word for it: No age is automatically too old to serve. Still, voters must consider a candidate’s capabilities, especially if there were to be a national emergency.
(CNN) — Con gran parte de Estados Unidos todavía afectada por una tormenta invernal de casi una semana de duración, las cancelaciones y retrasos de vuelos y otros problemas de transporte siguen acumulándose el día de Navidad.
Más de 1.600 vuelos dentro, hacia o fuera de Estados Unidos ya habían sido cancelados a las 5:30 p.m. ET de este domingo, según el sitio web de seguimiento de vuelos FlightAware. Y los vuelos que aún podían despegar sufrían casi 5.800 retrasos. El día de Navidad es tradicionalmente un día ligero para los vuelos de pasajeros.
Como una demostración de la magnitud y el impacto de la tormenta, fue un aeropuerto en el sur el que se vio más afectado al mediodía del día de Navidad.
Una prolongada tormenta invernal causa cortes de electricidad, interrupciones de los viajes y temperaturas gélidas el día de Navidad
El aeropuerto internacional de Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL), el de mayor tráfico de pasajeros del mundo, fue el que registró más cancelaciones y retrasos.
El número 2, el Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver, se encontraba a más de 1.600 kilómetros de distancia, en las Montañas Rocosas.
El Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver mantuvo el sentido del humor durante el estresante evento, publicando un tuit de lo que parecía ser un trabajador del aeropuerto tocando “Jingle Bells” en un violín. La temperatura a las 3:30 a.m. MT en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver ya estaba por encima del punto de congelación, a 8°C (46°F).
Catching some downtime inside St. Francis House on Sunday, Karen LaFrazia took in the Christmas spirit that filled the homeless shelter’s kitchen and dining room.
LaFrazia, the agency’s president and CEO, watched 350 guests enjoy plates full of stuffed chicken breast, butternut squash, mashed potatoes and string beans. Roughly 30 volunteers served the meals restaurant style during St. Francis House’s annual Christmas Day lunch.
“The thing that fills me with warmth is when I look at the people who are housed and the people who are unhoused, there’s real fellowship happening,” LaFrazia said. “The folks who are coming here are the same as anyone who lives in any neighborhood around the Commonwealth. They’d be great neighbors.”
Sooner than later, guests will get a chance to become neighbors.
St. Francis House will be breaking ground on a 19-story, 126-unit affordable housing building on Lagrange Street, at the crossroads of Chinatown and Downtown Crossing, by late spring.
Seventy units will be for people who are coming out of homelessness, while the remainder will be used to prevent people becoming homeless, LaFrazia said. The units, including studios and 1- and 2-bedrooms, will range in price from extremely low-income to market rate.
“Wouldn’t it be the best Christmas present, the best New Year’s gift, that they woke up in their own bed next Christmas, they’d cook their own Christmas meal, invite their own family and friends to their home?” she asked. “That’s my Christmas wish. Every single one of these men and women deserve their own place to live.”
Boston saw its homeless population decrease by 2.4% from last year to 1,545 individuals earlier this year, according to the city’s 42nd annual census released in June. The number of homeless families, however, had increased, from 843 to 929, the census shows.
Accessing affordable living quarters in the city is getting harder, too. The median price for a 1-bedroom rental is $3,060 in Boston, which leapfrogged San Francisco to be the second most expensive city in the country, according to an October report from Zumper.
St. Francis House staffers are looking to secure affordable apartments for 150 people within the next year, but LaFrazia said she expects the project her agency will be undertaking next year will bring more relief by increasing Boston’s sparse affordable housing stock.
“There just isn’t enough affordable housing,” she said. “You can send people to go look for it, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be there.”
Watertown resident Mel Powsner volunteered for the first time on Christmas with her aunt Judith Powsner, of Waltham, who has volunteered on the holiday a handful of times. They are Jewish and don’t celebrate Christmas, and they said they like serving because it means others can spend the day with their families.
“It doesn’t address the long-term problem of housing and food insecurity,” Judith Powsner said. “There really needs to be much more affordable housing in the Boston area. We hope the mayor is doing something about it.”
City resident Joseph Marrow spent Christmas afternoon feeling grateful for all that St. Francis House provides. The Vietnam War veteran left a Dorchester home he had been living in for about 10 years as it turned into a “drug house.”
After his departure, Marrow said he has turned to St. Francis House for assistance while he lives at a shelter provided through Pine Street Inn, another city-based homeless service agency. He expects to move into more permanent housing in January.
“St. Francis is a place where you can come and relax and get help,” Marrow said. “It means a whole lot.”
Volunteer Cheryl Rogers, center, places a meal in front of Colette Olcott, right, after delivering a meal to Clement Morris at St. Francis House on Boylston Street. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)More than 300 meals were served at the annual Christmas lunch at St. Francis House. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Volunteers work preparing meals during the annual Christmas lunch at St. Francis House in Boston. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Judy Lam of Boston hands over a completed meal to another volunteer at the annual Christmas lunch. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)
