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Today’s news briefs include postal rate increase; King Charles writes letter to Trump; Delta Airlines Palestinian pin controversy; Argentina and Hamas.
Post Office again raises prices
The cost of a stamp went up for second time this year, jumping 5 cents for first class postage to 73 cents. The increase occurred on Sunday. Each year, the US spends $40.8 billion on mail, including letters, bulk mailings, junk mail and periodicals with businesses and organizations accounting for the majority of that spending. Sunday marks the sixth increase in three years, during which first-class stamp increases rose 10 percentage points faster than overall inflation. Today the Postal Service has 640,000 employees located in over 30,000 facilities nationwide. The amount of mail delivered by Postal workers has dropped by almost 50% since 2013.
King Charles contacts Trump after assassination attempt
Britain’s King Charles has written privately to Donald Trump after he survived an assassination attempt, Buckingham Palace has confirmed. The message was delivered on Sunday via the UK embassy in Washington DC. The contents of the letter have not been made public, but the BBC understands the sentiments are in keeping with those communicated by the prime minister over the weekend. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC she was “horrified and angry” at the assassination attempt and added it was “heartening” to see so many world leaders join the condemnation.
Delta changes dress code after employees wear “Hamas badges”
Delta Airlines on Monday instituted new rules on employees wearing pins. The change comes after a passenger on July 10 posted photos of flight attendants wearing what he described as “Hamas badges.” The photos of the Palestinian flag pins sparked outrage among Delta customers and Delta employees. The AP reported one of its employees sympathized with passengers who might be “terrified” by the pins. Delta is now barring employees from wearing pins representing any country or nationality besides the U.S.
Argentina designates Hamas as terrorists
Argentina’s new conservative government is designating Hamas a terrorist organization and ordered a freeze on the financial assets of the Palestinian group. The move was made by President Javier Milei who seeks to align Argentina strongly with the U.S. and Israel. Milei outsted the former socialist government of Argentina in November 2023. The designation comes just days before the 30th anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by Palestinians. It killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more in the worst such attack in Argentina’s modern history according to the AP.
Court upholds ban on changing sex on birth certificates
A federal appeals court has upheld a Tennessee law that transgender-indentifying individuals from changing their sex on their birth certificates. In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Tennessee statute saying that birth certificates need to line up with sex does not violate the 14th Amendment. The state was sued by four men who identified as women and who wanted to change the sex to female on their Tennessee birth certificates. “No person, male or female, may amend a birth certificate simply because it conflicts with their gender identity,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote.
–Dwight Widaman and wire services
