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Russia's exiled chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt was speaking after gunmen killed 19 people in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan in southern Russia in attacks on churches, synagogues and the police.

"The Russian authorities during the last years have used the law enforcement authorities to repress any kind of opposition to the Kremlin, opposition to the war and any movements like the LGBT movement which was declared as extremist. People are sent to prison for criticising the war," Goldschmidt said in a video interview from Berlin.

"So instead of using law enforcement and the interior ministry and FSB (security service) to provide security for Russian citizens, it's being used to eradicate any opposition to the regime. And here we see the results, that such terrorists like ISIS are able to again and again mount successful attacks against houses of worship, against cultural events." [...]

Putin offers condolences

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences over Sunday's attacks, but it has not commented on who was to blame or why authorities failed to stop them.

[...]

Goldschmidt himself left Russia soon after the start of the war and has encouraged more Jews to follow his example rather than stay on in what he called a "semi-totalitarian" country.

"Tens of thousands of Jews left, and I'm happy they left," he said. "We are worried for all of those who are still there."

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The Russian division of the Bank of China has suspended operations with Russian lenders sanctioned by the United States in order to avoid being hit with secondary sanctions, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Monday, citing industry insiders.

The Bank of China’s Russian division — which specializes in yuan payments between Russia and China — is the second-largest Chinese banking subsidiary in the country [...]

Experts [said that this] would likely increase fraud risks given the subsequent shift to opaque intermediaries to process payments between Russian and Chinese entities.

“This is not very good news for the Russian market,” an anonymous industry insider was quoted [...]. “There will be additional costs both in time and the price of processing payments.”

"But the most important problem is that payments go beyond the banking sector, resulting in the state having less control,” the source added.

Kind of incredible, and really surprising as far as I can see :)

In the wake of Texas’ abortion ban, the state’s infant death rate increased and more died of birth defects, a study published Monday shows.

The analysis out of Johns Hopkins University is the latest research to find higher infant mortality rates in states with abortion restrictions.

The researchers looked at how many infants died before their first birthday after Texas adopted its abortion ban in September 2021. They compared infant deaths in Texas to those in 28 states — some also with restrictions. The researchers calculated that there were 216 more deaths in Texas than expected between March and December the next year.

In Texas, the 2022 mortality rate for infants went up 8% to 5.75 per 1,000 births, compared to a 2% increase in the rest of the U.S., according to the study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

A Republican-led effort to block one of President Joe Biden's student loan debt relief programs in court has succeeded just days before it was set to go into effect.

Decisions by U.S. District Judges John Ross in Missouri and Daniel Crabtree in Kansas, both appointees of former President Barack Obama, on Monday sided with GOP state attorneys general in thwarting Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, according to Reuters.

The SAVE plan, which was set to go into effect on July 1, was initially announced by Biden in 2022 alongside a since-canceled larger plan that would have erased up to $20,000 in student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers.

If landlords can’t pay back loans on office buildings, the lenders will suffer. Some banks are trying to avoid that fate.

Hard times are likely ahead for a lot of people. Mind your expenses and plan to save where possible just in case. Apologies for having a doomer outlook; I'm very cynical about capitalism, especially in the USA.

One such encounter went like this:

Me: “Hi. I’m calling about my daughter’s ambulance and hospital charges. I haven’t been able to reach my grievance coordinator about the appeal.”

Representative: “I can help you.”

**Me: **(Genuinely excited.) “Great!”

Representative: “Oh, I see your daughter turned 18. I can’t discuss her information with you.”

Me: “I sent a release of information form by mail, fax and email. I also faxed our conservatorship papers.”

Representative: “I’m sorry, it’s not on file. What office did you send it to?”

Me: (I give the information.)

Representative: “That’s the wrong fax number. Let me give you the correct one.”

Me: “I’m not inventing numbers out of the ether. This is the third new fax number I’ve been given. Are the address and email inaccurate too?”

Representative: “I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss your daughter’s claims with you without this information. Can you put her on the phone to give verbal consent?”

**Me: **“I can’t put her on the phone. She’s currently in a treatment center and has no access to a phone, which is why I have a conservatorship to help with her medical care.”

Representative: “I’m sorry, ma’am. There’s nothing I can do without the forms or her verbal consent.”

Me: “Who do you think pays the insurance premium and all her providers? I’m just trying to settle her claims, and I don’t know what we owe without access.”

Representative: “I can only answer general questions.”

Me: “OK. From the bills I’ve received, we’re being charged out-of-network fees for the ambulance, ER, ER doctor and hospital.”

Representative: “Was this out of state?”

**Me: **“Yes.”

Representative: “Hang on, I have to transfer you.”

I was on hold for another 15 minutes, and then got cut off. I called back, was transferred twice and then repeated a version of the above conversation before resuming — with a grievance coordinator! 

Grievance coordinator: “The ambulance and ER facility were both out of state and out of network.”

Me: “A treatment center called for an ambulance. I wasn’t given a choice of who responded or where they took her.”

Grievance coordinator: “They used out-of-network providers.”

Me: “They dialed 911. No one stops to ask the closest ambulance what their network status is.”

Grievance coordinator: “They did transfer her to an in-network hospital, but the physicians were not participating providers.”

**Me: **“Under the No Surprises Act, insurance must cover all providers in the case of an emergency, whether they are in network or not — even if out of state.”

(There was a long silence.)

Me: “Are you still there?”

Grievance coordinator: “Yes, ma’am. Once you get the conservatorship papers to us, we can look at those claims. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Me: “Apparently not.”