Telesur:
"On Tuesday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez presented the 2025 Economic and Financial Budget Bill to the National Assembly (AN). The proposed budget amounts to $22.6 billion, with 77.7% of this total allocated to social investment.

'As we have stated and reaffirmed previously, this law was not drafted in an office. It was not prepared by the Ministry of Finance’s planning department. This is a law created with the people’s input. Over 100,000 assemblies defined the essential guidelines for formulating policies aimed at addressing the needs of Venezuelans,' the Bolivarian vice president stated. ...

'This will ensure that projects originating directly from the needs of the people, who are organized into communes and communal councils, are included in next year’s budget,' Rodriguez affirmed, highlighting that the budget proposal comes amid favorable expectations for her country’s economy."
https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-allocates-78-of-the-2025-budget-to-social-investment

-->What a completely democratic way for selecting how a country spends its money. Contrast this with who makes the empire's decisions, the billionaires, of course. The NYT never carries stories like this, of course. News about South America is mostly Pentagon propaganda.

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Drop Site News:
"First, they banded together to block investing in overly political, woke businesses. Now, a coalition of state officials across the U.S. is using its power to allocate state funds to a political cause it cares about: Israel.

Since 2020, states and municipalities across the country have amassed a portfolio of  $1.7 billion in Israel Bonds—securities sold by the state of Israel to 'strengthen every aspect of Israel's economy, enabling national infrastructure development.' Since October 7th, 2023, $580 million of state and municipal investments have been invested in Israeli bonds.

In some cases, the state treasurers and comptrollers that purchased Israeli bonds are the very same officials who pushed for laws in their states against investing in firms that embrace environmental social governance (ESG), or investments based, at least superficially, on diversity, climate change, or any other criteria they deem 'woke.' Their argument: If a firm makes politically motivated investment decisions in accordance with ESG, then the firm has compromised its fiduciary duty to be a good steward of dollars and maximize returns for investors."
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-bonds-biden-gaza-moodys

-->Of course, investing in Israel is one of the stupidest things that state officials could do. These investments have already cost tens of millions in loses for municipalities and retirement programs. Don't look to the NYT to point out how politicians are investing in Israel rather than doing what is best for their public funds.

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Common Dreams:
"Israeli Siege Leaves 130,000 Kids Trapped and at Risk of Starvation in Northern Gaza. 'With no food, no clean water, and constant fear, both my children have developed rashes, and my daughter is passing blood, but there is no medicine, no help, and absolutely nothing I can do,' said one mother trapped in the area.

An estimated 130,000 children under the age of 10 have been trapped in areas of northern Gaza almost entirely cut off from aid assistance, food and medical supplies for 50 days, a major humanitarian group said Monday."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/northern-gaza-hunger-israel

-->The Gaza genocide has full support of the US media. Occasionally stories are leaked through. But for the most part, the starving children are well hidden.