January, 25 2022, 08:25am EDT
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Calls for Expansion of Residential Standards for At-Home Testing
WASHINGTON
In a letter sent last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) led 36 members in calling on President Biden to expand the residential standards set by the free at-home COVID-19 tests program. The lawmakers asked the Administration to allow multi-family housing units to order the tests they need. The full letter, including a full list of Members, is available here.
The letter reads in part, "Since rollout, we have received a large number of reports from constituents regarding their inability to request COVID-19 test kits as a result of not living in a single-family household: those who reside in dwellings such as basement apartments, renovated multi-family units, and multi-family residences. For those in apartment buildings, once these addresses are claimed on the USPS order portal, no other tests can be ordered to that address without going through the hotline. People living in basement apartments may not have their own distinct address, so the policy of one order per dwelling is preventing them from getting the tests they need. Those who live above a retail establishment are also having difficulty ordering kits."
"We urge the Administration to expand the guidelines currently set in place to account for basement apartments, renovated multi-family units, and multigenerational family households. Specifically, we urge you to allow families to list the number of members in their household and an associated surname, so that families who live in basement units or multi-family residences can access the appropriate number of tests."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district.
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Latest GDP Figures Show Rich Reaping Rewards as Working Class Continues to Suffer Under Trump
"People at the top are doing fine, people in the middle and lower income brackets are struggling a bit, to say the least."
Dec 24, 2025
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Ron Insana, a finance reporter and a former hedge fund manager, told MS Now's Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday night that there is a "split economy" in which growth is being driven primarily by spending from the top 20% of income earners, whom he noted accounted for 63% of all spending in the economy.
On the other side, Insana pointed to retail sales data that painted a very different picture for those on the lower end of the income scale.
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Dean Baker, co-founder and senior economist of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, also took note of this split in the US economy, and he cited the latest data showing that real gross domestic income, which more directly measures worker compensation over total economic output, grew at just 2.4% during the third quarter.
Baker also said that most of the gains in gross domestic income showed up at the top of the income ladder, while workers' income growth remained stagnant.
The theme of a split economy also showed up in an analysis from Politico financial services reporter Sam Sutton published on Wednesday, which cited recent data from Bank of America showing that the bank's "top account holders saw take-home pay climb 4% over the last year, while income growth for poorer households grew just 1.4%."
Sutton said that this divergence in fortunes between America's wealthy and everyone else was showing up in polling that shows US voters sour on the state of the economy.
"In survey after survey, a majority of Americans say they’re straining under the pressure of rising living expenses and a softening job market," Sutton said. "The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says low-income consumers have 'substantially' higher levels of credit card debt than they did before the pandemic. Even as growth and asset prices soar, Trump’s approval ratings are sagging."
Economist Paul Krugman on Tuesday argued in his Substack newsletter that one reason for this large disparity in economic outcomes has to do with the US labor market, which has ground to a halt in recent months, lowering workers' options for employment and thus lowering their ability to push prospective employers for higher wages.
"Trump may claim that we are economically 'the hottest country in the world,' but the truth is that we last had a hot labor market back in 2023-4," Krugman explained. "At this point, by contrast, we have a 'frozen' job market in which workers who aren’t already employed are having a very hard time finding new jobs, a sharp contrast with the Biden years during which workers said it was very easy to find a new job."
None of these caveats about the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data stopped US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from going on Fox News on Tuesday night and falsely claiming that a 4.3% rise in GDP meant that "Americans overall—all of us—are going to earn 4.3% more money."
Lutnick: The US economy grew 4.3%. What that means is that Americans overall—all of us—are going to earn 4.3% more money. pic.twitter.com/SIFi99NRBX
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With Gaza's Christian population decimated by Israeli attacks and forced displacement over the past two years, those who remain are taking part in muted Christmas celebrations this week as the West Bank city of Bethlehem displays its tree and holds festivities for the first time since Israel began attacking both Palestinian territories in October 2023.
Middle East Eye reported that while Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, led a Christmas Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on Sunday and baptized the newest young member of the exclave's Christian community, churches in Gaza have been forced this year to keep their celebrations indoors as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued its attacks despite a "ceasefire" that Israel and Hamas agreed to in October.
"Churches have suspended all celebrations outside their walls because of the conditions Gaza is going through," Youssef Tarazi, a 31-year-old Palestinian Christian, told MEE. "We are marking the birth of Jesus Christ through prayer inside the church only, but our joy remains incomplete."
"This year, we cannot celebrate while we are still grieving for those killed, including during attacks on churches," Tarazi said. "Nothing feels the same anymore. Many members of our community will not be with us this Christmas."
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At least 16 people were killed just days into the war when the IDF struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the oldest churches in the world. In July, Israel attacked the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing two women and injuring several other people.
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George Anton, the director of operations for the Latin patriarchate in Gaza, estimated that the number of Christians killed so far is at least 53, with many dying "because we could not reach hospitals or provide medicine, especially elderly people with chronic illnesses."
In the past, Muslims in Gaza have joined Christian neighbors for the annual lighting of Gaza City's Christmas tree and other festivities, and churches have displayed elaborate lights and decorations in their courtyards for the Christmas season.
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Hilda Ayad, a volunteer who helped decorate Holy Family Church earlier this month, told Al Jazeera that "we don't have the opportunity to do all the things here in the church, but something better than last year because last year, we didn't celebrate."
“We are trying to be happy from inside.”
Palestinian children are decorating Gaza’s only Catholic church for Christmas celebrations for the first time after 2 years of genocide. Pope Francis used to call the Holy Family Church almost every day until his death. pic.twitter.com/dtCdFjcTyo
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 24, 2025
About 1,000 Christians, who were mainly Greek Orthodox or Catholic, lived in Gaza before Israel's latest escalation in the exclave began in 2023.
Greek Orthodox Church member Elias al-Jilda and Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the church's Sebastia diocese in Jerusalem, told the Washington Post that the population has been reduced by almost half. More than 400 Christians have fled Gaza in the last two years. Those who remain have often sheltered in churches, including the ones that have sustained attacks.
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In Bethlehem in the West Bank, officials have sought to send a message to the world this Christmas that "peace is the only path in the land of Palestine," Mayor Hanna Hanania told Anadolu Agency.
"This year's celebrations carry a message of hope and resilience for our people and a message to the world that the Palestinian people love peace and life," he said.
At Al Jazeera, Palestinian pastor Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac wrote that "celebrating this season does not mean the war, the genocide, or the structures of apartheid have ended."
"People are still being killed. We are still besieged," he wrote. "Instead, our celebration is an act of resilience—a declaration that we are still here, that Bethlehem remains the capital of Christmas, and that the story this town tells must continue."
"This Christmas, our invitation to the global church—and to Western Christians in particular—is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live," Isaac continued. "If the Christian world is to honor the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem—not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity, and peace."
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As Turse reported:
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Bradley, now the chief of Special Operations Command, declined to comment, the reporter noted. SOCOM also declined to make Hamaguchi available, though the command's director of public affairs, Col. Allie Weiskopf, said: "We are not going to comment on what Admiral Bradley told lawmakers in a classified hearing. He did inform them that during the strike he sought advice from his lawyer and then made a decision."
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Various other experts and US lawmakers have similarly condemned the dozens of strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September—which as of Monday have killed at least 105 people, according to the Trump administration—as "war crimes, murder, or both," as the Former JAGs Working Group put it after the Hegseth reporting last month.
"Extrajudicial executions," declared public interest lawyer Robert Dunham on social media Wednesday, sharing Turse's new report and tagging the groups Amnesty International USA, HRW, and Reprieve US, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and independent experts who report to the UN Human Rights Council.
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