(GLASGOW, Scotland) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.
The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”
All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
Latest headlines:
-US, China announce joint statement addressing climate crisis
-America ‘ready to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says
-Obama addresses COP26, endorses Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ bill
-American agriculture is ready to tackle climate change, agriculture secretary says
-US needs to ‘get in the game’ on clean energy transitions, energy secretary say
-Biden, world leaders push to conserve global forests
Here’s how the conference is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 13, 3:15 pm
COP26 adopts Glasgow Climate Pact
COP26 has officially adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact, a 10-page document that lays out the groundwork for how the world will attempt to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
Nearly 200 countries agreed on the importance of addressing climate change but deep divisions still remained about the future of fossil fuels and rich countries’ reluctance to provide full-fledged financial support to countries more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Representatives from several countries said the pact did not go far enough to address the climate crisis but they could not justify leaving Glasgow without any progress on the issue.
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 12, 5:10 pm
Final Glasgow deal yet to come as negotiations continue on last day
Despite being the last stipulated date for the COP26, country representatives continue to work on finalizing the draft of the Glasgow deal. The negotiations are expected to continue into the night.
Countries continue to dispute who bears the financial burden of climate action and the deadlines for carbon emissions reductions. Some disagreements also took place over the semantics of the draft as representatives argued over whether “requests” or “urges” was a better fit when talking about climate goals.
The final day also witnessed walkouts and protests from climate activists around the world who claimed their voices were not being heard.
Crowds outside chanted: “Fighting for justice, and for liberation.”
Nov 11, 4:33 pm
Developing, vulnerable countries point fingers at rich countries, COP26 draft letter
Developing countries, including top emitters China and India, are asking for changes to the COP26 draft letter focusing more on reparations from established countries.
On Wednesday, Diego Pacheco Balanza, the head of Bolivia’s delegation and spokesman for the Like-Minded Developing Countries group, along with 21 other countries released an opposition to the draft agreement.
They say it is unfair for rich countries who built their economies on fossil fuels to tell developing countries what to do without recognizing that historical responsibility.
“We will never achieve the targets they are putting forward for the entire world. So we need to fight — the developing world — against this carbon colonialism,” Balanza said at a press conference Friday.
The statement comes amid rising concerns from vulnerable countries in the Global South, which claim that COP26 isn’t focusing enough on their needs.
Uganda’s Vanessa Nakate emphasized that any additional global temperature warming could lead to more suffering in her country.
“A 2.4-degree [warmer] world is a death sentence for communities like mine; 1.2 degrees is already hell for us,” Nakate told reporters Wednesday night.
Similarly, Elizabeth Wathuti from Kenya spoke about climate-related starvation in her country, urging leaders to keep those affected by it at the front of their minds.
“The big question is, are the leaders here going to step up to do what must be done to save those lives and livelihoods that are at stake?” Wathuti asked. “I come from Kenya where over 2 million Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation and I need answers when I go back to my communities to my country. What are we going to tell these people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake when we go back?”
Nov 10, 3:29 pm
US, China announce joint statement addressing climate crisis
Top carbon emitters U.S. and China have committed to working together on reducing emissions and transitioning to renewable energy over the next decade, according to U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
Kerry said it’s important that the countries work together on climate issues.
“And as I’ve said many times, the United States and China have no shortage of differences. But on climate, cooperation is the only way to get things done,” he told reporters Wednesday.
ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 09, 1:39 pm
America ‘ready to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi focused on the domestic political success of the Build Back Better plan and its investment in climate change while speaking to reporters at COP26, continuing the message that America is back on the international climate stage.
“We come here equipped, ready to take on the challenge to meet the moment,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said she still plans to pass the reconciliation bill the week of Nov. 15 and backed up remarks made by former President Barack Obama on Monday — that both he and President Biden could take more aggressive action on climate change if it wasn’t for near Republican control on Capitol Hill.
“Let me just say that when President Obama was president and we had majority in the first term … we did pass in the House a very strong climate bill,” she said.
“Sixty votes in the Senate is an obstacle that is very hard to overcome and is another subject for another day.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also declared that “America is back” but was more critical, saying that leaders will need to “actually deliver.”
“We’re here to say that we’re not just back, we’re different … and we are more open, I think, to questioning prior assumptions about what is politically possible and that is what is exciting about this time,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — Americans across the country are seeing higher prices at the mall, grocery store and gas pump, causing new pain for their pocketbooks right as the holiday shopping season is set to commence.
Inflation has risen at its highest rate in three decades, data released by the Labor Department earlier this week indicates, as consumer prices soared by 6.2% compared to the same period last year. This is the biggest one-year jump seen in the government’s consumer price index since 1990.
As inflation tightens its grip on the economy, the Federal Reserve has begun walking back previous assurances that it will be a temporary, post-pandemic blip. Economists at Goldman Sachs warned in a research note last week that inflation is “likely to get worse before it gets better,” and could persist well into next year.
Many Americans now are too young to remember the pain and uncertainty inflation wreaked on the country in the 1970s, a period economists dub as “The Great Inflation,” when wages and prices snowballed and the purchasing power of savings dwindled before a painful correction that led to a recession and double-digit unemployment rates in the early 1980s.
A generation later and under very different circumstances, prices are again surging at a rapid clip. While economists say policymakers now are much better-equipped to respond to inflation than the last time it struck the U.S., consumers are already feeling the pressure — particularly those with limited means to absorb higher prices for essentials.
Here is what Americans should know about inflation, why it is so high right now and when they can expect relief.
What is inflation?
“Basically, inflation measures the rate of increase in consumer prices,” Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News. “At the end of the day, it measures the extent to which the cost of living is higher.”
The Federal Reserve, America’s central banking system, defines inflation as the “increase in the prices of goods and services over time.”
“Inflation cannot be measured by an increase in the cost of one product or service, or even several products or services,” the Fed states. “Rather, inflation is a general increase in the overall price level of the goods and services in the economy.”
Policymakers evaluate changes in inflation by monitoring several different price indexes. One of the most commonly used barometers of inflation is the Consumer Price Index, which is released by the Labor Department each month and measures the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a market basket of goods and services.
The CPI has surged by 6.2% since last October, according to DOL data. The so-called “core index,” or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, rose 4.6% over the last 12 months, the DOL’s data indicates. This represents the largest one-year increase since August 1991.
“Inflation means that your dollar won’t stretch as far,” Laura Veldkamp, a professor of finance at Columbia Business School, told ABC News. She used Christmas presents as an example, saying that if you wanted to buy a sweater as a gift last year for $100, this year, that price might be closer to $105.
If the prices of some goods and services increases and the prices of others fall, but the overall prices that consumers pay for the bundle of goods and services does not increase, then this is not referred to as inflation.
What causes inflation, and why is it so high right now?
Inflation is determined by the interaction of total demand (aggregate demand) and total supply (aggregate supply) in the economy. If total spending in the economy exceeds the total amount that the economy can produce, then production cannot increase but instead prices will rise.
“When you have a higher demand, the price tends to go up. When you have lower supply, the price also tends to go up,” Goldstein told ABC News. “At the end of the day, the price is a combination of these forces.”
But monetary policies also affect inflation, he said. Keeping interest rates low and injecting a lot of money into financial markets — actions the Fed took to help buoy the economy during the health crisis — can also be linked to the high inflation we are now seeing, according to Goldstein.
Stimulus checks boosted total demand, and at the same time the ability to supply goods and services have been restricted by the pandemic. While the impact of stimulus money on inflation is now waning, many of the other factors that created these imbalances between supply and demand are persisting, Goldstein said.
“People feel that they have money to spend, they want to spend it on things that they haven’t done in the last year,” Goldstein said. “You basically have limits on supply at the same time that you have an increase in demand, and that certainly pushes prices up.”
Veldkamp also stressed the impact that the supply chain issues have on driving up prices. Using the Christmas sweaters metaphor again, Veldkamp added, “Let’s say those Christmas sweaters are stuck on a boat somewhere, then the few sweaters that are here, lots of people want them.”
“So, stores can charge more for them, because they’re scarce,” she explained.
Costs of doing business have also risen during the pandemic, Veldkamp noted, as companies had to spend more to make it safe to do business while COVID-19 spread.
“Lastly, workers are asking for higher wages,” Veldkamp said. “Which may be perfectly justified, but it does make the cost of doing business higher. Say if a restaurant waitstaff wants a 5%, 10% raise, those restaurants are going to have to pass some of that additional cost to their customers, otherwise they won’t turn a profit.”
The economic phenomenon known as the “wage-price spiral” can develop when prices increase and then workers ask for higher wages — which can then lead to further increases in the prices of goods and services, and these can lead to a further increase in wages and so on. In this manner, inflation can become a self-fulfilling prophesy of sorts. This ever-intensifying wage-price spiral characterized the U.S. economy in the ’70s, ultimately resulting in double-digit inflation.
How does the rise in inflation affect consumers?
If consumers’ wages increase with the rise in prices, they should be able to continue purchasing the same amounts of goods and services as usual. This will not be true for all consumers, however, meaning some may struggle to purchase what they used to.
“Your dollar doesn’t go as far, so it’s going to be a little bit harder to buy all the things on your list with the same amount of money,” Veldkamp said. “And that sounds pretty bad, but at the same time, wages are rising, and returns rise with inflation, too.”
Goldstein reiterated that the effect of inflation on consumers is that “when prices go up, people will have to pay more for whatever they want, and as a result, they can afford less.”
He also mentioned the wage-price spiral to show how inflation “might get out of control.”
“What could happen is everyone has to pay more, so they go back and start demanding increases in wages,” he said. “And if wages start to go up, then the whole process can get additional amplification and kind of like a snowball eventually gets very tough to control — and then it becomes very difficult to bring things back.”
How does inflation impact the stock market?
Stocks are a claim on the future earnings of firms, so in principle, firms should be able to raise their prices in line with inflation so their earnings should not decrease.
Historically, however, inflation has been linked to negative impacts in the stock market. One reason for this is that inflation restricts the ability of the Federal Reserve to take action. After stricter policies defeated the spiraling inflation in the U.S. in the early 1980s, the Fed has been able to ease monetary policy following stock market crashes and adverse events such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic. When inflation is increasing, however, then the Fed no longer has as much freedom to implement expansionary monetary policy, and when the Fed contracts its expansionary policies, this can decrease stock prices.
Inflation is also often accompanied by uncertainty, which can be bad for the stock market. Investors do not know how long it will last and do not know what to expect from monetary policy, meaning they might be less likely to invest in it.
In the near-term, investors will likely see higher returns on stocks in times of inflation, Veldkamp said, driven by prices increasing.
Goldstein warns, however, that, once inflation starts rising, the Fed will have “no choice but to increase rates abruptly.”
“And when this happens, this will tend to have a negative effect on the stock market,” he said.
What can the government do to reduce inflation?
The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates and ease the pandemic-era expansionary monetary policies that injected liquidity into financial markets, according to Goldstein, though he added that this is a “tough balance” as the economy still teeters toward a recovery.
“On the one hand, you want to provide stimulus to the economy and to markets to get over the crisis,” he said of the Fed. “But on the other hand, you don’t want to overdo it, so that things don’t overheat and cause inflation.”
Echoing Goldstein’s sentiments, Veldkamp told ABC News, “We’re probably going to see some interest rate rises.”
“So, if somebody hasn’t already refinanced their mortgage, now would be the time to do that,” she added. “We will probably see the Federal Reserve boost interest rates, because that’s their primary tool to constrain inflation, and what that does is it encourages people to save their money.”
But Goldstein warns that “the government cannot do a whole lot” when it comes to inflation.
Policies that have been tried in the past around the world, such as instituting price caps, can quickly backfire, Goldstein said, because they can bring about a whole new set of issues when the government intervenes like that in the economy.
In the short-term, anything the Biden administration — which operates independently of the Fed — can do to help ease the supply-chain bottlenecks will also help with keeping prices of goods down.
Veldkamp said that less government spending is the “traditional remedy to bring down inflation,” though adds that is not what we’re seeing happening at the moment with Biden’s proposed $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
This bill can help reduce inflationary pressures, however, “if that infrastructure helps to reduce the cost of doing business,” Veldkamp added.
“If fixing the potholes means that fewer delivery trucks are blowing out tires and things get to where they need to go on time — things run more smoothly,” she added. “If they can reduce the cost of doing business, they can bring down inflation.”
How can people protect themselves from the impacts of inflation?
“When you are dealing with inflation, you have to think about how you protect your investments,” Goldstein said. Just keeping money in your bank account could hurt, he said, “because you’re not getting compensated for the inflation.”
Some people choose to invest in the stock market, but as Goldstein mentioned, the stock market can be a bit of a mixed bag “because there could be overall macroeconomic implications that will push the stock market as a whole down.”
Veldkamp said her advice for Americans is: “Don’t leave your money in cash.”
“The value of cash is going to get eroded,” she said. “You want to look for, at the very least, a savings account that offers some interest. You might want to ask about money market mutual funds, those are financial products that are usually really safe, but give you a little bit more interest.”
“Things are getting more expensive, but if you protect the money that you have by putting it in interest-bearing accounts, you should do just fine, because your money will grow even faster than the price level is growing,” Veldkamp added.
“On the flip side, anybody who’s got a mortgage should be loving inflation,” Veldkamp said “If you owe somebody something, then inflation is eating away at the value of that debt, it should get easier and easier to pay back that loan.”
Will the inflation we’re seeing now be temporary?
In short, only time will tell.
In past months, policymakers including Fed Chair Jerome Powell have stressed that the inflationary pressures are expected to be “transitory” in the wake of the pandemic.
In a press conference earlier this month, however, Powell said that “supply constraints have been larger and longer lasting than anticipated.”
Powell said that “the drivers of higher inflation have been predominantly connected to the dislocations caused by the pandemic, specifically the effects on supply and demand from the shutdown, the uneven reopening and the ongoing effects of the virus itself” and stressed that the Fed’s tools “cannot ease supply constraints.”
Still, Powell said that he believes “our dynamic economy will adjust to the supply and demand imbalances, and that as it does, inflation will decline.”
“Of course, it is very difficult to predict the persistence of supply constraints or their effects on inflation,” Powell said. “Global supply chains are complex; they will return to normal function, but the timing of that is highly uncertain.”
Goldman Sachs economists, in their research note warning inflation will get worse before it gets better, said their core view remains that the underlying supply-demand imbalances will work themselves out as Powell has said.
“But it is now clear that this process will take longer than initially expected, and the inflation overshoot will likely get worse before it gets better,” the researchers warned.
The Goldman Sachs team said they expect the process of supply chain disruptions easing, inventories being rebuilt and the lingering impacts of pandemic-era fiscal boosts fading to “start by the second half of next year and to extend into 2023.”
Veldkamp told ABC News that she is only “modestly” concerned about inflation spiraling out of control like what was seen in the 70s.
“I do think it’s a possibility, I’m watching out for it,” she said. “At the same time, I think our central bankers know a lot more about how to contain inflation than they did in the 1970s. Economics has evolved a lot since then, and so I have confidence in the professionals running our monetary system, that they’re going to work hard to promote that.”
Goldstein echoed Veldkamp’s sentiments, saying that he doesn’t think the “nightmare scenario” of what happened in the ’70s is a likely outcome at this point.
“A lot has been learned from the past and how to deal with those situations,” he said. “And I think the Fed is ready to act, and if they see it is getting to that point, they can very quickly raise rates, and I think that will likely help.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 758,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 13, 12:43 pm
Aaron Rodgers meets return-to-play requirements after quarantine: Reports
Aaron Rodgers has remained asymptomatic from COVID-19 and has met the NFL/NFLPA return-to-play protocols, ESPN reported.
“It’s been going great,” Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur said this week, according to ESPN. “Communication’s been there. He’s been in every meeting. He’s been engaged. So, it’s just he’s not with his guys out on the field.”
Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 3 and required to undergo a 10-day quarantine. The Packers, Rodgers and receiver Allen Lazard were all fined for violations of the protocols that were jointly agreed upon by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, ESPN reported.
Nov 12, 8:33 pm
4 states move toward recommending COVID-19 booster for all adults
As COVID-19 cases increase across the country, at least four states are moving to recommend booster shots for all adults ahead of federal authorization.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Thursday declaring the entire state at high risk from COVID-19, thereby making all fully vaccinated adults eligible to receive a booster shot.
“We want to ensure that Coloradans have every tool they need to protect themselves from this deadly virus and to help reduce the stress on our hospitals and health care workers,” Polis said in a statement.
Every Coloradan ages 18 and up who is at least six months past the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, or two months past the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, can now receive a booster shot.
“I was relieved to get the booster two weeks ago,” Polis said, “and strongly encourage you to get it too.”
On Friday, the governor of New Mexico issued a similar order, and officials in California and West Virginia have previously encouraged residents to receive a booster shot.
Meanwhile, Pfizer asked the Federal Drug Administration for booster authorization for all adults on Tuesday.
Nov 12, 6:18 pm
US cases up nearly 20% since mid-October
The U.S. is currently averaging around 76,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, up by nearly 20% since mid-October, according to an ABC News analysis of federal data.
North Dakota now has the country’s highest infection rate, followed by Minnesota, Alaska and Vermont.
COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide also increased for the fourth consecutive day Friday. More than 47,000 patients with COVID-19 are currently receiving care.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 12, 7:06 am
Colorado approves COVID-19 booster for all adults
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Thursday declaring the entire state at high risk from COVID-19, thereby making all fully vaccinated adults eligible to receive a booster shot.
“We want to ensure that Coloradans have every tool they need to protect themselves from this deadly virus and to help reduce the stress on our hospitals and health care workers,” Polis said in a statement.
Every Coloradan aged 18 and up who is at least six months past the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, or two months past the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, can now receive a booster shot.
“I was relieved to get the booster two weeks ago,” Polis said, “and strongly encourage you to get it too.”
Nov 11, 2:26 pm
US COVID hospitalizations increase for 3rd consecutive day
Thursday marked the third consecutive day where COVID hospitalizations rose nationwide.
Fourteen states reported a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week. The states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Total hospitalizations are down nearly 55% since mid-August.
Nov 10, 9:21 pm
COVID-19 deaths expected to continue to fall in weeks to come
COVID-19 forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently predicting that weekly death totals will likely continue to fall in the weeks to come, though thousands of Americans are still expected to lose their lives.
The ensemble model expects just under 15,000 more virus-related deaths to occur in the U.S. over the next two weeks, with a total of around 781,500 deaths by Dec. 4.
The model estimates that 13 states and territories of the U.S. have a greater than 50% chance of having more deaths in the next two weeks compared to the past two weeks.
Nov 10, 9:15 pm
Federal judge strikes down Texas ban on school mask mandates
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local mask mandates, including in schools, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Since the order was issued in late July, state Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed lawsuits against more than a dozen school districts for issuing mask mandates, according to the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel. In August, advocacy group Disability Rights Texas filed the lawsuit against the state on behalf of several students with disabilities who faced an increased risk from COVID-19, alleging it denied them equal access to in-person learning.
“The evidence presented by Plaintiffs establishes that Plaintiffs are being denied the benefits of in-person learning on an equal basis as their peers without disabilities,” Yeakel wrote in his ruling.
Yeakel also said the executive order “interferes with local school districts’ ability to satisfy their obligations under the ADA” by placing all authority with the governor.
Yeakel enjoined the state from enforcing the mask mandate ban and ordered that the plaintiffs recover their court costs from the state.
Paxton has said the state is “protecting the rights and freedoms” of residents by banning mask mandates.
Nov 10, 6:43 pm
States sue over vaccine mandate for health care workers
Ten states are suing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate targeting health care workers.
About 17 million health care workers who are employed at places that get funding through CMS are required to get vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022. They do not have the option to test.
“The mandate is a blatant attempt to federalize public health issues involving vaccination that belong within the States’ police power,” stated the suit, which was filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is running for Senate.
The attorneys general of Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire have joined the lawsuit, which is one of many filed against different parts of the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements but the first to target the health care worker mandate.
Twenty-six states are suing over the mandate that applies to businesses, while another handful are suing over the federal worker mandate. Last week, a federal court temporarily blocked the business vaccine rule.
Before you dig into that Thanksgiving spread this year, take time to think about what’s in front of you. Here’s an eating guide:
First: The bird. If you’re preparing the turkey, don’t buy the “self-basting” kind, which is injected with a solution that’s supposed to help “improve” the flavor and juiciness of the meat. Those turkeys have nearly twice the fat and salt as the old-fashioned kind. And skip the skin altogether – that’s where almost all the fat is.
Next: Cranberry sauce. As long as it doesn’t come in a can, go ahead and load up! Cranberries are high in vitamin C and tannins, the heart-healthy compounds also found in red wine. Just make sure the sauce isn’t loaded with sugar, like the canned kind.
What about stuffing? To make it really healthy, use whole-wheat bread or high-fiber grains like wild rice. And cook it outside the bird, where it won’t get soaked in fatty drippings. If someone else has made the stuffing and they didn’t follow those guidelines – skip it.
And watch out for gravy, which is basically salty, flavored fat.
Finally: Sweet potatoes. One potato has nearly zero fat and only 120 calories – not bad at all. Sweet potatoes also contain an anti-oxidant that fights cancer, and reduces the risk of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Just don’t top yours with a million mini-marshmallows!
Families can be tough. And now there’s statistical proof. There’s a new book out called “The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why” by Dalton Conley, Director of Social Science Research at New York University. And in his studies, Conley found that a child’s place in the family is a strong predictor of how their life will turn out in the long run. He based his research on data from hundreds of thousands of families. So the next time you’re munching on a drumstick at Thanksgiving dinner, think about a few of these.
Those with the worst chance for financial success are middle children and children with skin darker than their siblings.
In large families, the struggle for attention from the parents creates identities that stick through adulthood. Kids from large families feel more pressure to stand out either by achieving more or by rebelling and causing trouble.
And in families with 3 or more kids, there will often be a drastic difference in the kids’ financial outcome. One sibling tends to be a lot richer than the others.
When it comes to divorce, it’s hardest on the eldest child. Especially if the eldest is a daughter, because she’ll often have to take on more housework, take care of younger siblings, and give emotional support to the single parent. That oldest daughter often gets trapped in that sacrifice role and ends up having a harder life than her younger siblings.
In families with a stay-at-home mom, brothers are more likely to get college degrees than their sisters. When the mother works outside the home, those differences disappear.
But Conley wants everyone to know that these are statistics, not the rule. So any predicted outcome can be changed.
There’s no doubt that living with two happy parents is the best thing for children, but with the divorce rate over 50%, that’s not always a reality. However – the operative word to keep in mind here is happy. Lisa Strohschein, a professor in the sociology department of the University of Alberta, says that living with unhappy parents is actually harder on kids than divorce! Here are the details, courtesy of Web MD:
Strohschein followed thousands of children for four years. They all started out living in two parent households, but about half those marriages ended in divorce.
Compared with kids whose parents remained married, the children of divorced parents exhibited more antisocial behavior, such as lying, cheating and bullying. They also were more likely to be diagnosed with depression.
The problems these kids had started while they lived with both parents. In fact, their behavior improved after the split.
Strohschein says her research shows it’s living in a dysfunctional household – not divorce – that causes a lot of bad behavior. Psychologist Judith Primavera – who’s published research on children of divorce – agrees. She says that your marital problems don’t need to be of the Jerry Springer variety. In her work, she’s found that troubled couples who don’t fight verbally stress their kids out almost as much as hot-blooded parents. That’s because when people live in the same house but don’t interact like a couple, children have more trouble in school and more difficulty socializing. This might be the most important point: Since children learn how to have adult relationships from their parents, staying in an unhappy marriage for their sake increases your child’s chances of being in a similar situation one day.
After nearly 14 years, it took less than 40 minutes in court for an L.A. County Judge to free Britney Spears today.
Judge Brenda Penny said “a conservatorship of the person and the estate of Britney Jean Spears is no longer required.”
She acknowledged there’s no reason to believe Britney lacks the capacity to make her own decisions, and pointed out all parties involved agree with termination. Each party was eventually called upon by the judge to verbally affirm that they supported termination, including Britney’s parents.
And the judge agreed to the two caveats to the termination that Britney’s attorney Mathew Rosengart outlined “in Britney Spears’ best interest”: something of a “safety net” as he referred to it, to ensure Britney has the support she needs, financially and personally, to succeed.
Prior to the hearing, a termination plan and a care plan were submitted to the court under seal; details were not discussed in the courtroom.
The temporary Conservator of the Estate, John Zabel, who was appointed six weeks ago when Britney’s father Jamie was suspended, will continue to work on Britney’s behalf in an administrative capacity. Rosengart described Zabel as becoming “a concierge service for her financial safety and well-being.”
The Conservator of Person, Jodi Montgomery, according to her attorney, will stay in Britney’s life to help her transition. Montgomery’s attorney said her client believes Britney can live a “safe, happy and fulfilling life.”
Rosengart told ABC News as he left the courtroom “I tried to keep it simple.” And he did. He repeated Britney’s own pleas to the court earlier this year, quoting her as saying, for example, “I just want my life back.”
Future court hearings were scheduled for December 8 and January 19 to tie up additional loose ends.
If you’re still not over the 10-minute-long version of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” off her newly released Red (Taylor’s Version), the singer has just released a short film to accompany the track.
As previously reported, the film was written and directed by Taylor. It stars Stranger Things’Sadie Sink and former Teen Wolf star Dylan O’Brien; Taylor plays an older version of Sadie’s character.
The video begins with a quote from poet Pablo Neruda: “Love is so short; forgetting is so long.” It then follows Dylan and Sadie’s unnamed characters from the dizzying heights of their new romance, through the strains on their relationship, to their devastating breakup and, finally, her acceptance.
Each scene is set off by titles like “The First Crack in the Glass,” “The Breaking Point,” “The Reeling,” and “The Remembering.” Much of the specific imagery in Taylor’s song appears in the video, from the now-infamous scarf to scenes of “dancing ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light.”
There’s an interlude where the music stops and Dylan and Sadie’s characters argue, hurling f-bombs at each other, as she accuses him of acting like a different person around his friends, who are all “much older” than she is, while he accuses her of imagining it.
The end of the video is introduced by the title “13 Years Gone,” and we see that Sadie’s character, now older and wiser, has become an author and written a book called All Too Well. As she does a reading at a book store, a man is seeing looking at her through the window…wearing the infamous scarf.
“All Too Well,” a fan-favorite deep cut, has long been rumored to be about Taylor’s short-lived romance with actor Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010, when she was 20 and he was 29. In previously-unheard lyrics of the 10-minute version, we get a sense of what might have caused their breakup.
“You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine/And that made me want to die,” Taylor sings on the track. Another lyric goes, “And I was never good at telling jokes but the punch line goes/I’ll get older but your lovers stay my age.”
Taylor hinted that the video was full of Easter eggs, so Swifties…have at it.
The Rolling Stones have partnered with the Tommy Hilfiger fashion company’s Tommy Jeans label on a new collection of Stones-themed t-shirts and sweatshirts dubbed “Tommy Revisited: Music Edition.”
The collection, which features six styles of tees and sweatshirts boasting the band’s iconic tongue-and-lips logo, debuted today and is available at The Stones’ RS No.9 Carnaby shop in London and at the store’s website, Carnaby.TheRollingStonesShop.co.uk.
The apparel’s design was inspired by the tour merchandise The Rolling Stones and Tommy Hilfiger teamed up to create in 1999 for the band’s No Security tour.
The tees and sweatshirts are made from organic cotton and are available in unisex and female sizes.
In addition, three limited-edition items have been produced that are exclusively available at the RS No.9 Carnaby shop — a printed black t-shirt, a denim jacket and a long-sleeve sweatshirt. The latter two pieces are embroidered with multiple Stones logos.
Meanwhile, The Stones have three more concerts left on their 2021 No Filter Tour of the U.S. The shows are scheduled for this Monday, November 15, at Ford Field in Detroit; November 20 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas; and November 23 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida.
(NEW YORK) — Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” has agreed to end her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.
The The joint stipulation said the case is “dismissed and discontinued.”
Zervos’ attorneys and attorneys for Trump filed a stipulation of discontinuance that offered no explanation for the decision.
“Today the parties have ended Zervos v. Trump,” Zervos’ attorney, Beth Wilkinson, said in a statement. “After five years, Ms. Zervos no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant and has secured the right to speak freely about her experience. Ms. Zervos stands by the allegations in her complaint and has accepted no compensation.”
Zervos had claimed Trump groped her in 2007 at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and then defamed her when he denied it during the campaign.
In a statement Friday that called the allegations “made up … for publicity or money,” Trump said: “It is so sad when things like this can happen, but so incredibly important to fight for the truth and justice. Only victory can restore one’s reputation!”
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said Friday the decision to end the case belonged to Zervos.
“She had no choice but to do so as the facts unearthed in this matter made it abundantly clear that our client did nothing wrong,” Habba said in a statement to ABC News. “It is a privilege to defend President Trump, who has been relentlessly attacked and viciously hounded by bad faith actors.”
Habba also said Trump did not pay Zervos.
The former president had recently been ordered to sit for a deposition before Christmas.
In a statement last month abut the deposition, Zervos’ attorney, Moira Penza, said: “We just don’t believe our client can be further prejudiced in delaying this litigation any longer. We do not believe there are any outstanding issues that would prohibit the parties from engaging in depositions.”
