The US will begin air dropping food aid to the people of Gaza, President Joe Biden announced on Friday, as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land crossings to allow more assistance into the war-torn strip.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional aid into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” the US President said, noting “hundreds of trucks” should be entering the enclave.

Biden said the US is “going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses”.

He also noted the efforts to broker a deal to free the hostages and secure an “immediate ceasefire” that would allow additional aid in.

  • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    It’s sometimes hard to say an individual death was for sure caused by COVID, but it’s easy to compare the number of deaths to the historical average and see how many more happened. It’s really the only way to get a good count of COVID related deaths, because looking at excess deaths will also reveal how many people are being killed indirectly, such as dying due to lack of medical care because COVID was overwhelming the hospitals.

    • Urist@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      I agree with you and actually argued for this further down some comment chain. However, mortality increase was temporary in Norway where I am from (and AFAIK mostwhere in Europe), hence indicate that there is no uncontrolled pandemic here.

      Here is an infographic from the start of 2023:

      • ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        You should probably be looking at trends over a longer period of time, rather than just a single month.

        From here. There was a dip below the 2016-2019 average in January through March of 2023, but time marches on.