18: Kalki

Israel and Hezbollah Play a Risky Tit-for-Tat, Leaving Region on Edge Unlike Hamas, the Palestinian militia fighting Israel in Gaza, Hezbollah has troops who are battle-hardened combatants, and the group possesses long-range, precision-guided missiles that can strike targets deep inside Israel....... a war between the two sides today, they said, could devastate both Israel and Lebanon. ...... “But you can easily stumble into it, even if it’s not something they want in principle” ......

How Capitalism Went Off the Rails “When the price of borrowing money is zero,” Sharma told me this week, “the price of everything else goes bonkers.” To take just one example: In 2010, as the era of ultralow and even negative interest rates was getting started, the median sale price for a house in the United States hovered around $220,000. By the start of this year, it was more than $420,000........ “A generation ago, it took the typical young family three years to save up to the down payment on a home,” Sharma observes in the book. “By 2019, thanks to no return on savings, it was taking 19 years.” ...... We are wandering in fog. And the precipice is closer than we think.

Emergencies Declared Across the Northeast as Heat Index Hits Triple Digits The heat index soared over 100 degrees even in parts of Maine, and record-breaking temperatures were expected across the region over the next five days.