US Suicide rate hits highest point in 80 years

Suicide-Rate-Graph

Important Takeaways:

  • The suicide rate among Americans, which has risen steadily over the past 18 years, has reached its highest point since 1941, preliminary data for 2022 shows.
  • The suicide rate per 100,000 people in 2022 was 14.3, according to a report from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention released early Wednesday. The rate was 15 in 1941.
  • An estimated 49,449 people died by suicide in 2022, the CDC said. That’s an increase of 2.6% over the 48,183 suicide deaths in 2021.
  • The rate for males was 23.1 and 5.9 for females in 2022.

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Americans’ fear of crime has 40% saying ‘No’ to walking alone at night

walk-alone-night

Important Takeaways:

  • 40% of Americans are afraid to walk alone at night — most in decades, poll says
  • Concerns about certain crimes are at their highest levels in decades, causing Americans to isolate themselves from their communities, according to new polling.
  • A recent Gallup poll found that 28% of Americans worry frequently or occasionally that they will be murdered, according to a Nov. 16 news release. That’s a near-record high.
  • Meanwhile, half of U.S. adults said they worry their car will be stolen or broken into, 37% worry they’ll be mugged and 32% are concerned about getting attacked while driving — near-record highs.
  • Additionally, the vast majority of Americans, 72%, worry they will fall victim to identity theft, according to the poll.
  • One-third, 34%, of Americans said concerns about crime prevent them from driving in certain areas of their communities, while 28% say these concerns keep them from attending events, including concerts, fairs and sporting games.
  • 28% of those polled said their anxiety about crime has prevented them from speaking to strangers.

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62% are living paycheck to paycheck but the Fed still thinks interest rates need to stay high

Americans-paycheck

Important Takeaways:

  • 62% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, making it ‘the main financial lifestyle,’ report finds
  • The number of Americans who say they are stretched too thin has shown no signs of improvement amid high prices and higher interest rates.
  • Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently said “inflation is still too high,” indicating that interest rates will stay higher for longer.
  • High inflation and higher interest rates continue to weigh on American households.
  • As of September, 62% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new LendingClub report. The figure is unchanged from last year.
  • “Living paycheck to paycheck remains the main financial lifestyle among U.S. consumers,” the report said.
  • “Many are having to make tough choices to defer discretionary spending in order to stay on top of their loan payments and the costs of necessities,” he added. The resumption of student loan payments only adds to this stress.

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A global affair with victims from 36 countries

Hostage-Posters

Important Takeaways:

  • 25 Americans Dead Among Hamas Victims from 36 Countries: ‘My Mom Died on Top of Me’
  • S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday at least 25 Americans were killed by Hamas terrorists in the barbaric attacks that targeted unarmed civilians inside Israel on Saturday.
  • Blinken, who is in Israel, vowed American support to Israel as its military continued airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in preparation for a likely ground operation in Gaza.
  • “You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists you will never have to,” Blinken said after meeting with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. “We will always be there by your side.”
  • The Israeli military said it is currently targeting Hamas’ senior military and political leaders, whom it blames for the weekend attack. Its missiles are aimed at Hamas infrastructure embedded among the civilian population of Gaza.
  • Meanwhile, the death toll in Israel continues to climb. More than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, have been murdered by Hamas, and Gaza officials say at least 1,200 people have died in the airstrikes. The terror group attempts to hide among Palestinian civilians as it continues to fire rockets into southern Israel.
  • Citizens from 36 nations are missing, have been murdered, or are among the hostages who have been abducted by Hamas.
  • “By the way, many of the hostages are dual nationals — Americans, Brits, Germans, French, Italians, Brazilians, and many other nationalities. Some are not even Israelis. There are Thai workers that were taken, and abducted for, I don’t know what reason,” Conricus added.
  • France has said that 11 French citizens are confirmed dead in the fighting and 20 are unaccounted for, including several believed held hostage.
  • The British government has said 10 or more U.K. citizens are dead or missing after the attacks on southern Israel.
  • The Colombian government reported the first death of one of its citizens in Israel

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71% think the country is headed in the wrong direction

American-Flag

Important Takeaways:

  • Poll finds 71% of Americans believe country is on wrong track
  • The 71% of Americans in our latest NBC News poll saying the country is headed in the wrong direction is the eighth time in the last nine NBC News surveys dating back to Oct. 2021 when the wrong track has been above 70%.
  • And the one exception was in Sept. 2022, when it was 68%.
  • We have never before seen this level of sustained pessimism in the 30-year-plus history of the poll.

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Medical debt is becoming an increasingly pervasive problem

Medical-Debt

Important Takeaways:

  • Medical debt is becoming an increasingly pervasive problem, with a seemingly never-ending stream of media reports chronicling bankruptcies, garnished wages, lost homes and insidious tactics from hospitals all too eager to sue their patients.
  • State lawmakers are taking notice and enacting a flurry of reforms designed to protect their constituents from late notices, threatening voicemails and credit score declines
  • The actions — in more than a dozen states — represent a determined, if patchwork, effort to help the roughly 100 million Americans who deal with medical debt.

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Large percentage of Americans are living under financial strain

Important Takeaways:

  • 61% of Americans say they are living paycheck to paycheck even as inflation cools
  • Lower-income workers have been the hardest hit by price spikes, particularly for food and other staples, since those expenses account for a bigger share of the budget, studies show. Roughly three-quarters of consumers earning less than $50,000 annually and 65% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 were living paycheck to paycheck in June, based on LendingClub’s numbers.
  • Fewer top earners have been struggling to make ends meet. Of those earning $100,000 or more, only 45% reported living paycheck to paycheck, the report found.
  • A majority, or 52%, of adults, including high earners, said they have felt more financially stressed since before the Covid pandemic began in 2020, according to a separate CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in March — largely due to inflation, rising interest rates and a lack of savings.

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Author David Fiorazo discusses poll finding fewer Americans believe in hell and the devil

People in Pews

Important Takeaways:

  • Staggering Degree Of Biblical Illiteracy: Poll Finds Fewer and Fewer Americans Believe in Hell and the Devil
  • Going back over twenty years when Gallup first polled Americans on belief in these religious entities (2001), this is the lowest point in the poll. Here’s the breakdown from high to low:
  • 74% believe in God
  • 69% in angels
  • 67% in heaven
  • 59% in hell
  • 58% in the devil
  • Belief in God and heaven is down the most (16 points each), while belief in hell has fallen 12 points. Is this simply a result of the world having more influence over the church than the church has over the world? Perhaps.
  • Nearly three in 10 do not believe in hell or the devil. Not surprisingly, belief in the five spiritual truths was highest among frequent churchgoers. But the message in God’s inspired word doesn’t seem to be reaching the culture and there are several reasons for it.
  • This poll reveals in part the consequences of compromising church leadership as reported in last year’s Barna research on pastors. They found only 37% of Christian pastors have a biblical worldview.
  • On the other hand, a majority of church leaders (62%) possess what is referred to as a “hybrid worldview” known as Syncretism, having a combination of different forms of belief or practice, often representing personal preferences. This is also known as creating a god in your own image.

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Travel alert; Reconsider traveling to China due to recently passed laws that could have you detained or arrested

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • U.S. recommends Americans reconsider traveling to China due to arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans
  • The U.S. recommended Americans reconsider traveling to China because of arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.
  • No specific cases were cited, but the advisory came after a 78-year-old U.S. citizen was sentenced to life in prison on spying charges in May.
  • It also followed the passage last week of a sweeping Foreign Relations Law that threatens countermeasures against those seen as harming China’s interests.
  • China also recently passed a broadly written counterespionage law that has sent a chill through the foreign business community, with offices being raided, as well as a law to sanction foreign critics.
  • “The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government arbitrarily enforces local laws, including issuing exit bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, without fair and transparent process under the law,” the U.S. advisory said.
  • “U.S. citizens traveling or residing in the PRC may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime,” it warned.

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More Americans are struggling to keep up with rent, and in some cases, they’re no longer paying their rent

Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • More Than Eight Million Americans Reportedly Behind on Rent
  • 8,070,524 people ages 18 or older in the U.S. aren’t caught up on rent payments. Put another way, 13.17% of the nation’s adult renters live in a household that charges them rent and are behind on payment.
  • Nationwide, 3,560,345 adults — 5.81% of adult renters — live in a household that doesn’t pay rent.
  • The states with the largest share of adults behind on rent payments are New York, Nevada and Louisiana.
  • Mississippi, West Virginia and Alaska are the states where the largest share of people live rent-free.
  • Over the past year, 53.03% of renters across the U.S. saw their rent increase, while 36.91% saw no increase and 1.75% saw a decline. The majority of those who saw their rent payments jump reported increases between $100 and $249 a month.

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