Why the Teamsters union won’t endorse any candidate in the 2024 election and how to avoid credit card debt.

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Yesterday, Lebanon saw another deadly wave of explosions of communication devices – this time, walkie-talkies, At least 20 dead and hundreds injured, according to Lebanese health officials. The new explosions occurred just 24 hours after pagers exploded, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 3,000. In some cases, walkie-talkies exploded during funerals for people killed by pager explosions. Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks on Hezbollah this week, but a U.S. official told NPR that Israel notified Washington that Tuesday’s attacks were carried out.

• 🎧 NPR’s Jane Arraf heard one of the last explosions yesterday as she and producer Jawad Rizkhallah attended the funeral of a Hezbollah member. She says First up that as the speaker began shouting the names of the dead and the band began to play, a bang was heard and someone nearby shouted that someone’s hand had been torn off. Hezbollah has vowed revenge. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will give a speech that evening. People in the area are restless. They are afraid of electronic devices because there is no telling when something might explode.
• 🎧 As NPR’s Greg Myre tells it, what happens with exploding communications devices is something that’s never been seen before. Many analysts say there is no military solution and that there will have to be a political one. Hezbollah has signaled over the past year that it does not want a full-scale war. As it considers a counterattack, there is a possibility that Hezbollah could continue the ongoing cross-border exchanges of fire, but would not decide to escalate the fighting.

The International Brotherhood of Truck Drivers does not endorse any presidential candidate.which sets them apart from other unions that were active in this year’s election. It breaks with decades of Teamsters precedent and is a blow to Vice President Harris, who met with union leadership for a roundtable Monday. The union released an internal poll yesterday that showed nearly 60% of members wanted former President Donald Trump back in the White House. Trump later boasted that he had the Teamsters’ endorsement. Harris has won endorsements from a number of labor groups, including the United Auto Workers, the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, and the Nevada Culinary Union.

• 🎧 NPR’s Don Gonyea says the decision is unusual because the Teamsters union has supported every Democratic candidate since Bill Clinton.including President Biden. The union’s president, Sean O’Brien, praised Trump in a pro-union speech at the Republican National Convention in July. The decision was not made based solely on polls. Harris does not have a long history with the union, as Biden does, though she has said she would continue his pro-union policies.

Black girls are more disciplined and punished harshlylike expulsion, in public schools than girls from other racial backgrounds, according to a report shared exclusively with NPR by the Government Accountability Office. The report was nearly a year and a half in the making and provides the first-of-its-kind look at the disciplinary disparities that black girls face in public school systems across the U.S. Some of the factors that have been linked to increased discipline include the level of poverty at a school, the percentage of girls with disabilities, the number of new teachers and the presence of a school resource officer. The report, set to be released by a congressional watchdog today, here’s a breakdown of its disclosures.

Life advice

Credit card bill arrears are more common than you might think, especially when the details of how they work can be confusing. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, people under 30 and low-income families in the U.S. are most likely to max out their credit limits. That puts them at greater risk of missing payments. John Kiernan, managing editor of personal finance site WalletHub, says there are ways to keep your bills under control.

• 💳 Avoid high interest charges by paying the full amount due on your statement each month. On the day a payment is missed, interest and late fees begin to be added to the balance.
• 💳 Try not to miss your grace period — the interest-free period that many companies offer between when you buy something and when your credit card payment is due. Once your period is up, you will start earning interest daily on everything you buy.
• 💳 Can’t pay your full balance? Make a minimum deposit, which is the smallest amount you need to pay each month to keep your account in good standing.
• 💳 Create a debt repayment strategy. You will find free calculators on the Internet to help you with this.

Here is the full list tips on how to avoid debt.

Photo slideshow

Morning Edition visited the Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton to see how the production of defense equipment contributes to to the economy of northeastern Pennsylvania. Artillery development at the plant has accelerated since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Scranton, once a center for coal mining and small-scale American manufacturing, now relies on defense facilities for good, high-paying jobs. Keeping up with Ukraine’s needs is not easy.

3 things to know before you go

1. The Justice Department is suing the owner and operator of the container ship Dali for more than $100 million, alleging Neglect and cost-cutting led to the ship hitting and destroying the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March.
2. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, residents are voting in local elections for the first time in a decade. Some voted in the hope it would restore the territory to state status, which it lost in 2019 when it came under federal rule.
3. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has joined an exclusive club: It is one of 45 songs since Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart was created in 1958 to stay at number one for at least 10 weeks.

This newsletter was written by Suzanne Nuyen – …

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