Status of the two prominent wars: Peace on the Gaza Strip.  How will it be possible for any kind of treaty, for the goal of Israel and the U.S. is to eliminate the Hamas from this site, with they being the other participant in the negotiations?  At least President Trump's off the wall solution for the USA to gain control is one possible solution for a longer peace.  What he did was set the terms so ridiculously against the Hamas, that some other Middle East country might be able present a more logical pathway to a longer peace. On the Ukraine War, with President Trump so anti-Ukraine (he said Ukraine started the war and Zelensky is a dictator, while blackmailing the country to give us their rare minerals or else), no doubt Russia will get what it will want for peace.  Meaning holding on to winning territory and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO.  Trump is also upset at many NATO nations not allocating sufficient funds to the Organization, and in this he is ri...

In a word, yes, you should continue to worry about Covid-19 when you travel.  Although we luckily avoided getting sick on our 53-day world journey, just around the time we returned, three of the residents at 15 Craigside where we live came back from trips and tested positive.  I also learned that we have a resident who traveled outside of Hawaii on three occasions after the pandemic was declared over, and each time contracted this virus while on the road.  They were all up-to-date in every Covid vaccination, including the latest booster.  But because of that, symptoms were mild. As I once devoted Thursdays to this disease, let me today bring you up to date on the latest info. In 2017, the leading causes of deaths in the USA were heart disease, cancer and accidents. During the pandemic, Covid-19 replaced accidents at #3. In 2023: Heart disease:  702,880 Cancer:  608,371 Accidents:  227,039 Covid-19:  186,552 Stroke:  165,393 Respiratory causes...

Using   Worldometer   data, the USA had 66,046 new cases during the past week.  This was 55% the World total of 119,320 cases.  This past week, however, saw a 48% drop in the U.S. from the previous full week. That 55% rate is far too high, as many countries, such as Japan and South Korea, don't report anymore, and I know from  other sources  that South Korea at more than 10,000 or so cases/week. South Korea began to have covid outbreaks after most of its citizens were vaccinated.  Thus, their overall mortality rate is  only 0.1%.  Today it is still at 0.1%, twice that of the seasonal flu at  0.05%.  The USA overall is now at 1%.  However, in recent weeks, the mortality rate has dropped to 0.2%, or four times the flu mortality rate. The USA during the 2021-2022 flu season had 9 million cases, or divided by 365 meant 25,000 flu cases/day.  Of course most people got sick during the colder months.  So let's double that to...