NEW YORK: The latest government waste touted by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency is hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment claims it purportedly uncovered.
One problem: Federal investigators already found what appears to be the same fraud, years earlier and on a far greater scale.
In a post last week on X, the social media site Musk owns, DOGE announced “an initial survey of unemployment insurance claims since 2020” found 24,500 people over the age of 115 had claimed $59 million in benefits; 28,000 people between the ages of 1 and 5 collected $254 million; and 9,700 people with birthdates more than 15 years in the future garnered $69 million from the government.
The tweet drew a predictable party-line reaction of either skepticism or cheers, including from Musk himself, who said what his team found was “so crazy” he re-read it several times before it sank in.
“Another incredible discovery,” marveled Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who repeated DOGE’s findings to President Donald Trump in a Cabinet meeting last week.
Chavez-DeRemer’s recounting of the alleged fraud, including claims of benefits filed by unborn children, drew laughter in the Cabinet room and a reaction from Trump himself.
“Those numbers are really bad,” he said.
But Chavez-DeRemer needn’t look further than her own department’s Office of the Inspector General to find such fraud had already been reported by the type of federal workers DOGE has demonized.
“They’re trying to spin this narrative of, ‘Oh, government is inefficient and government is stupid and they’re catching these things that the government didn’t catch,’” says Michele Evermore, who worked on unemployment issues at the US Department of Labor during the administration of former President Joe Biden. “They’re finding fraud that was marked as fraud and saying they found out it was fraud.”
The Social Security Act of 1935 enshrined unemployment benefits in federal law but left it to individual states to set up systems to collect unemployment taxes, process applications and mete out support.
Though states have almost complete control over their own unemployment systems, special relief programs — most notably widely expanded benefits enacted by the first Trump administration at the outset of the COVID pandemic — inject more direct federal involvement and a flood of new beneficiaries into the system.
In regular times, state unemployment systems perform “very well, not so well and terribly,” according to Stephen Wandner, an economist at the National Academy of Social Insurance who authored the book “Unemployment Insurance Reform: Fixing a Broken System.” With COVID slamming the economy and creating a flood of new claims that states couldn’t handle, Wandner says many more were “quite terrible.”
Trump signed the COVID unemployment relief into law on March 27, 2020, and from the very start it became a magnet for fraud. In a memo to state officials about two weeks later, the Department of Labor warned that the expanded benefits had made unemployment programs “a target for fraud with significant numbers of imposter claims being filed with stolen or synthetic identities.”
That same memo offered an option for states trying to protect a person whose identity was stolen to fraudulently collect unemployment benefits. To preserve a record of the fraud but keep innocent people from being linked to it, states could create a “pseudo claim,” the memo advises.
Those “pseudo claims” led to records of toddlers and centenarians getting checks. The Labor Department’s inspector general tallied some 4,895 unemployment claims from people over the age of 100 between March 2020 and April 2022, but another departmental memo explained that the filings stemmed from states changing dates of birth to protect people whose identities were used.
“Many of the claims identified ... were not payments to individuals over 100 years of age, but rather ‘pseudo records’ of previously identified fraudulent claims,” the 2023 memo says.
A Labor Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about Musk’s findings and DOGE gave no details on how it came to find the supposed fraud or whether it duplicates what was already found.
Though DOGE ostensibly looked at longer timeframe than federal investigators previously had, it tallied just $382 million in fake unemployment claims, a tiny fraction of what investigators were already aware.
In 2022, the Labor Department said suspected COVID-era unemployment fraud totaled more than $45 billion. The Government Accountability Office later said it was far worse, likely $100 billion to $135 billion.
“I don’t think it’s news to anyone,” says Amy Traub, an expert on unemployment at the National Employment Law Project. “It’s been widely reported. There’ve been multiple congressional hearings.”
If DOGE’s newest allegations have an air of familiarity, it’s because they echo its prior findings of about Social Security payments to the dead and the unbelievably old. Those were false claims.
That makes DOGE an imperfect messenger even when fraud has occurred, as with unemployment claims.
Jessica Reidl, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute, is a fiscal conservative who so champions rooting out federal waste she has written 600 articles on the subject. Though she believes unemployment insurance fraud is rife, she has trouble accepting any findings from DOGE, which she says has acted ineffectively and possibly illegally.
“When DOGE says impossibly old dead people are collecting unemployment in huge numbers, I become skeptical,” Reidl says. “DOGE does not have a good track record in that area.”
Traub said the burst of pandemic-era unemployment fraud led states to implement new security measures. She questioned why Musk’s team was trumpeting old fraud as if it’s new.
“Business leaders and economists are warning about a national recession, so it’s natural to think about unemployment,” says Traub. “It’s an attack on the image of a critically important program and perhaps an attempt to undermine public support on unemployment insurance when it couldn’t be more important.”
DOGE trumpets unemployment fraud that the government already found years ago
https://arab.news/cu74x
DOGE trumpets unemployment fraud that the government already found years ago
- Though DOGE ostensibly looked at longer timeframe than federal investigators previously had, it tallied just $382 million in fake unemployment claims
British FM says ‘window now exists’ for diplomacy with Iran
WASHINGTON: On the eve of European talks with Iran over its nuclear program, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Thursday after meeting high-level US officials that there is still time to reach a diplomatic solution with Tehran.
Lammy met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff at the White House, before talks on Friday in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi alongside his French, German and EU counterparts.
The diplomatic flurry came as European countries call for de-escalation in the face of Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear program — and as US President Donald Trump weighs up whether or not to join the strikes against Tehran.
“The situation in the Middle East remains perilous,” Lammy said in a statement released by the UK embassy in Washington.
“We discussed how Iran must make a deal to avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Lammy said.
“Tomorrow, I will be heading to Geneva to meet with the Iranian foreign minister alongside my French, German and EU counterparts,” the British minister said.
“Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.”
The State Department said Lammy and Rubio had “agreed Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Araghchi earlier confirmed he would “meet with the European delegation in Geneva on Friday,” in a statement carried by Iranian state news agency IRNA.
The talks are set to include Lammy, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, as well as EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Trump has said he is weighing military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities as Israel pummels the country and Tehran responds with missile fire.
France, Germany, Britain and the European Union were all signatories of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which Trump sunk during his first term in office.
The EU’s Kallas, in coordination with European countries, has insisted that diplomacy remains the best path toward ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear bomb.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said European nations were planning to suggest a negotiated solution to end the Iran-Israel conflict. He asked his foreign minister to draw up an initiative with “close partners” to that end.
Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday.
“We are ready to take part in negotiations aimed at obtaining from Iran a lasting rollback of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Barrot said.
Israel says its air campaign is aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67 percent limit set by a 2015 deal with international powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies it is building nuclear weapons.
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Longer exposure, more pollen: climate change worsens allergies
- Climate change affects allergy patients in multiple ways, according to a 2023 report by the WMO
- Shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores, says study
PARIS: Runny nose, itching eyes, worsening asthma symptoms — the effects of hay fever are nothing to sneeze at, experts say, warning of an “explosion” of allergies as climate change lengthens and intensifies pollen seasons.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores.
As winter frost thaws earlier and spring weather gets warmer, plants and trees flower earlier, extending the pollen season, numerous studies have shown.
Air pollution can also increase people’s sensitivity to allergens, while invasive species are spreading into new regions and causing fresh waves of allergies.
More and more people, particularly in industrialized nations, have reported developing allergy symptoms in recent decades.
Around a quarter of adults in Europe suffer from airborne allergies, including severe asthma, while the proportion among children is 30 to 40 percent.
That figure is expected to rise to half of Europeans by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
“We’re in crisis because allergies are exploding,” said Severine Fernandez, president of the French Allergists’ Union.
Whereas previously an allergic person would endure only what is commonly known as hay fever, albeit sometimes for years, “now that person can become asthmatic after one or two years,” Fernandez said.
‘No doubt that climate change is having an effect’
Climate change affects allergy patients in multiple ways, according to a 2023 report by the WMO.
Rising levels of carbon dioxide, one of the main heat-trapping gases produced by burning fossil fuels, boost plant growth, in turn increasing pollen production.
Air pollution not only irritates the airways of people exposed, but it also causes stress to plants, which then produce more “allergenic and irritant pollen.”
Nicolas Visez, an aerobiologist at the University of Lille, said each plant species reacted differently to a variety of factors such as water availability, temperature and CO2 concentrations.
Birch trees for example will wither as summers get hotter and drier, while the heat causes a proliferation of ragweed, a highly allergenic invasive plant.
“There’s no doubt that climate change is having an effect,” Visez said.
In a study published in 2017, researchers projected that ragweed allergies would more than double in Europe by 2041-2060 as a result of climate change, raising the number of people affected from 33 million to 77 million.
The authors suggested that higher pollen concentrations as well as longer pollen seasons could make symptoms more severe.
‘AutoPollen’ program
A Europe-wide “AutoPollen” program under development aims to provide real-time data on the distribution of pollen and fungal spores.
In Switzerland, a tie-up with MeteoSwiss allows patients and doctors to match personal allergy profiles with maps of specific allergens throughout the country.
In parts of France, authorities have planted “pollinariums,” gardens packed with the main local allergen species.
These provide information on the very first pollen released into the air so that people can start taking antihistamines and other protective measures in a timely manner.
“Hazelnuts have started to bloom as early as mid-December, which wasn’t the case before,” said Salome Pasquet, a botanist with the association behind the pollen gardens.
“That’s really because we’ve had very mild winters, so flowering has come earlier,” she said.
Some countries are taking an interventionist approach — cutting off the pollen at the source.
In Japan, the government announced a plan in 2023 to combat allergies caused by the archipelago’s many cedar trees, which includes felling cedars to replace them with species that produce less pollen.
Countries in Europe are also more mindful of species in the environment, both native ones that have been planted and invasive newcomers like ragweed.
Preference is given to species with a lower allergenic potential, such as maple or fruit trees.
“The idea is not to stop planting allergenic species,” Pasquet said, but to be mindful of creating diversity and avoiding having “places where there are rows of birch trees, as was the case a few years ago.”
It was birch trees in a client’s garden that originally set off symptoms for Simon Barthelemy, an architect who lives near Paris.
“I had a major eye allergy, and it’s been a recurring problem every year since,” he said.
“I’m on antihistamines, but if I don’t take them I get itchy eyes, I’m very tired, I cough... I can’t sleep at night.”
British lawmakers to vote on landmark assisted dying law
- Would be biggest social reform in a generation
- Some worries over protections for most vulnerable
LONDON: British lawmakers will vote on Friday on whether to proceed with a bill to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill people, in what would be the biggest social reform in the country for a generation.
Last November, lawmakers voted 330 to 275 in favor of the principle of allowing assisted dying, paving the way for Britain to follow Australia, Canada and other countries, as well as some US states.
Now, after months of scrutiny, amendment and emotional debate, the bill must clear another stage of voting to keep it on the road to legalization, a process that could still take months. A vote against would stop it in its tracks.
The Labour lawmaker who has proposed the new law, Kim Leadbeater, said there could be a reduction in the number of members of parliament who support the bill on Friday, but she was confident it would still be approved.
One member of parliament who supports the legislation said there were about a dozen votes between those in favor and against, with a number yet to declare their position.
Dozens of lawmakers earlier in June signed a letter to the leader of the House of Commons saying that there had not been enough time to debate the details of such a consequential law change.
Leadbeater said her biggest fear was that if the legislation was voted down, then it could be another decade before the issue returns to parliament.
The issue was last considered in 2015 when lawmakers voted against it.
“It works and it is safe, and it provides dignity to terminally ill people,” she told reporters before the vote. “This is not an either or when it comes to palliative care or assisted dying. It is about choice for people.”
Public support
Opinion polls show that a majority of Britons back assisted dying, and supporters say the law needs to catch up with public opinion.
But, since the initial vote, some lawmakers say they are worried the bill’s protections against the coercion of vulnerable people have been weakened.
Under the proposed law, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live would be given the right to end their lives with medical help.
In the original plan, an assisted death would have required court approval. That has been replaced by a requirement for a judgment by a panel including a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist. Lawmakers have also raised questions about the impact of assisted dying on the finances and resources of Britain’s state-run National Health Service and the need to improve palliative care.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is neutral on the bill, meaning politicians can vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
Lawmakers will hold a final debate on the legislation on Friday morning before a likely vote in the afternoon. If it passes, the legislation will be sent to the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber, for further scrutiny.
Italy, pressed to lower deficit but hike defense spending, lashes at ‘stupid’ EU rules
- EU budget rules need to be changed to allow member states to boost defense spending, says Italian economy minister
ROME: European Union budget rules are “stupid and senseless” and need to be changed to allow member states to boost defense spending as recommended by Brussels, Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Thursday.
The EU Commission has introduced flexibility clauses to allow more investment in security, but Giorgetti said their current form penalizes countries such as Italy, which are under a so-called EU infringement procedure for their excessive deficits.
“It is essential to find ways to bring these rules up to date with the crisis we are experiencing so that they do not seem stupid and senseless,” the minister said in a statement issued by his staff on the sidelines of a meeting with euro zone peers in Luxembourg.
The title of the statement was blunter, saying Giorgetti called for changes to “stupid and senseless rules.”
Brussels has proposed allowing member states to raise defense spending by 1.5 percent of gross domestic product each year for four years without any disciplinary steps that would normally kick in once a deficit is more than 3 percent of GDP.
The plan came amid growing pressure in Europe to boost military spending to deter a potential attack from Russia and become less dependent on the United States.
Highly-indebted Italy is set this year to meet the NATO defense target of 2 percent of GDP through a series of accounting changes, but an alliance summit next week is expected to raise the goal to 5 percent of GDP.
Giorgetti said that, under the Commission’s scheme, member states not subject to the EU’s excessive deficit procedure would be allowed to use the extra leeway on defense without breaching budget rules, even if their deficits rise above the 3 percent of GDP ceiling.
However, “member states already in the infringement procedure cannot use the same flexibility,” he added.
In this situation Italy is reluctant to use the EU flexibility clause because it would prevent it from lowering its deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2026 from 3.4 percent last year, as planned.
“Italy is committed to a timely exit from the infringement procedure and accepting the invitation to increase defense spending would forever prevent this,” Giorgetti said.
Rome is also wary of any move that could harm its improving reputation on financial markets, two government officials said.
Last month, credit ratings agency Moody’s upgraded Italy’s outlook to “positive” after rival S&P Global raised the country’s rating to “BBB+” from “BBB.”
Italy’s preferred option would be the issuance of common EU debt to finance higher defense spending, one of the officials said, but such a plan would require support from the other bloc members. (Editing by Alvise Armellini and Gavin Jones)
Muslim NY mayoral candidate reports threats; Jewish Ohio lawmaker was threatened separately
WASHINGTON: The New York City Police Department said on Thursday its hate crime unit was probing anti-Muslim threats against mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani while in another incident US Representative Max Miller of Ohio said he was “run off the road” by another driver with a Palestinian flag.
These marked the latest US incidents to raise concerns about the rise in hate against Americans of Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian heritage since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in late 2023.
An NYPD spokesperson said police received reports that on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., Mamdani, a Democratic state assembly member and mayoral candidate, reported that he “received four phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual.”
There have not been any arrests so far and the investigation remained ongoing, the NYPD added. The New York Daily News reported a man threatened to blow up Mamdani’s car. Mamdani had no immediate comment.
Separately, Republican US Representative Max Miller from Ohio said on X he was “run off the road” in the city of Rocky River on Thursday while he and his family were threatened by a person with a Palestinian flag. He said he had filed a police report.
“Today I was run off the road in Rocky River, and the life of me and my family was threatened by a person who proceeded to show a Palestinian flag before taking off,” said Miller, who is Jewish and pro-Israeli. He labeled the incident, which was also condemned by top congressional Democrats, as antisemitic.
Recent incidents that raised alarm over antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes in the US include a fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington and a Colorado attack that left eight people wounded when a suspect threw incendiary devices into a pro-Israeli crowd.
Incidents raising alarm about anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian prejudice include the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian child in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California.
