News of the World

[kyonides]

Egypt displays recently discovered ancient tombs in Saqqara

Egypt on Saturday displayed recently discovered, well-decorated ancient tombs at a Pharaonic necropolis just outside the capital Cairo.

The five tombs were unearthed earlier this month and date back to the Old Kingdom — a period spanning roughly from around 2700 BC to 2200 B.C., as well as to the First Intermediate Period, which lasted for over a century after the Old Kingdom collapsed, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Egyptian archeologists started excavating the site in September. The tombs, he said, were for senior officials including regional rulers and palace supervisors in ancient Egypt.

The tombs were found near the Step Pyramid of Djoser, in the Saqqara Necropolis, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Cairo.

Equifax, Experian, TransUnion to remove majority of medical debts from consumers' credit reports

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion have announced they will collectively remove nearly 70% of medical collection debt tradelines from credit reports.

Starting July 1, paid medical collection debt will no longer be included on consumer credit reports. In addition, the time period before unpaid medical collection debt would appear on a consumer’s report will be increased from 6 months to one year, offering consumers more time to address their debt with insurance and healthcare providers before it is reported.

In the first half of 2023, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion will also no longer include medical collection debt under at least $500.

The three credit-reporting firms cover more than 1.6 billion credit accounts for over 200 million adults every month.

"Medical collections debt often arises from unforeseen medical circumstances. These changes are another step we’re taking together to help people across the United States focus on their financial and personal wellbeing," Equifax CEO Mark Begor, Experian CEO Brian Cassin and TransUnion CEO Chris Cartwright said in a joint statement Friday. "As an industry, we remain committed to helping drive fair and affordable access to credit for all consumers."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that there was at least $88 billion in medical debt sitting on 43 million credit reports as of June 2021.
...
Past-due medical debt can lower a person's credit score, potentially reducing their access to credit and making it harder to find a home or a job. The CFPB emphasizes that medical debt collections are less predictive of future payment problems than other debt collections are.

Black and Hispanic people, and young adults and low-income individuals of all races and ethnicities, are more likely to have higher rates of medical debt than the general population. Older adults and veterans are also heavily impacted by medical debt. Medical debt is more prevalent in the southeastern and southwestern United States.

Keep in mind that they're only working on removing them from the reports, they're not paying back the debts or anything the like. Still, I guess it's good to get this kind of little help if you've got other kind of financial needs to care about.

Firing-squad executions get green light in South Carolina

South Carolina has given the green light to firing-squad executions, a method codified into state law last year after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences because of the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.

The state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia and that the agency had notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution.

Lawmakers set about tweaking state law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. Legislation that went into effect in May made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.

During South Carolina’s lengthy debate, Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian — a prosecutor-turned-criminal-defense lawyer — introduced the firing squad option, arguing that it presented "the least painful" execution method available.

So they now care about making it the less painful method of execution...
Did their victims get the same kind of compassion from the  killers?
 Just saying.

Putin lays out his demands for cease-fire in call with Turkey's president

In a Thursday conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly outlined the conditions that would need to be met in order for him to end his invasion of Ukraine.

According to a BBC report, a Turkish official who listened to the call between the two leaders said that Putin would end his invasion if several conditions are met including a promise that Ukraine will remain neutral and not join NATO.

Erdogan's leading adviser and spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, says that Russia is also calling for Ukraine to undergo a disarmament process to mitigate threats to Russia in the future as well as legal protections for the Russian language in Ukraine.

Additionally, Putin reportedly desires promises related to the "Denazification" of Ukraine.

Putin, according to the report, is also asking for face-to-face negotiations with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hammer out his demands which Zelenskyy has previously stated he is not opposed to.

Kalin said that there were other conditions Putin listed that he did not go into much detail about but he believes they will involve territories that have broken away from Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region.

The report states that it is "assumed" Putin will ask Ukraine to give up territory in the east and formally recognize that Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, is a part of Russia.

Keep in mind that Russia's allies in the Middle East are Turkey and Iran. Syria is nothing more than a puppet state to Russians.

And the detractors still insist on not portraying Russia as Gog, even if Turkey has become one of its closest allies...