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MANHATTAN, New York—What was initially a crowd of hundreds protesting against vaccine mandates and biased media had grown to thousands by 1 p.m. on Saturday in the heart of New York City.On adjacent corners in Times Square, people of almost all ethnic backgrounds could be seen holding signs demanding “bodily autonomy” and a pro-choice stance with regard to COVID-19 vaccines and mandates, along with statements that suggested their views are being suppressed.At the main rally site, “trap” music bounced off the buildings of Times Square. The lyrics expressed defiance against vaccine mandates and tyranny as the crowd grew at a...

[H/T Jane Long]Corona is primarily dangerous to the very old and the already sick. Occasionally, it is true, somebody who is younger or not already sick ends up dying. This happens with influenza and other viruses too. While that’s regrettable, Corona is not the leading cause of tragedies like these, and on balance they are too rare to pose an overarching unprecedented global threat to our hospitals, to our public health, to our nursing homes, or to whatever it is we’re supposed to be worried about right now. Given the stratified nature of Corona risk, the majority of the gains...

The "hot numbers" on positive COVID tests are coming from two countries, details on Worldometers stats at the end of the summary... Today a large crowd in front of California's State Capitol in Sacramento protesting Governor Gavin Newsom's vaccine mandate for students in California schools... Thousands of demonstrators clashing with police in the northern Italian port city of Trieste today... "Don't quit your job. Go to work. You know what quitting is doing is actually complying...Take a stand #RosaParksit and go to work. Plant your feet on a firm foundation and refuse to move... What would happen in Washington state...

President Joe Biden’s first 10 months in office has been a series of clusters, one right after the other and some simultaneous, from him bizarrely handing off the southern border crisis to his infamously inept Vice President Kamala Harris, to his gross mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic, the catastrophic and deadly failures of his Afghanistan exit strategy, the inflation woes brought on by his disastrous handling of the economy, and everything in between. All of these are crises that are still playing out in real-time as we speak and with no end in sight.But in the midst of us all...

Workers at the Mountaire Farms poultry plant in rural Robeson County, North Carolina, say that about four months ago, something changed. At the time, they couldn’t immediately identify the strange new chemical they’d begun to smell floating around the production lines. But one day things were running as expected, and the next there was a sharp, suffocating kind of odor that one worker said felt like it “invaded your brain.” “It stings your eyes and throat; it’s like a burning in your nasal cavity,” said Sharon, an immigrant who has worked at Mountaire’s Lumber Bridge plant for more than a...

Fox News anchor John Roberts deleted a tweet on Monday that suggested former Secretary of State Colin Powell's death from COVID-19 complications raises "new concerns" about the long-term efficacy of inoculation. Powell's family announced his death in a statement that also said the 84-year-old had been fully vaccinated. He also reportedly had been diagnosed from multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that weakens the body’s ability to protect against infections. Roberts's deleted tweet said "the fact that Colin Powell died from a breakthrough COVID infection raises new concerns about how effective vaccines are long-term." It was met with an...

China has denied reports that it tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile earlier this year, insisting instead that it was a routine spacecraft check. The initial report in the Financial Times newspaper prompted concern in Washington, where US intelligence was reportedly caught by surprise. Hypersonic missiles are much faster and more agile than normal ones, meaning they are more difficult to intercept. It comes as concern grows around China's nuclear capabilities. On Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing that a routine test had been carried out in July to verify different types of reusable spacecraft technology. "This...

Former President George W. Bush remembered his former Secretary of State Colin Powell as a "highly respected" family man and friend after learning of Powell's death. Powell died at 84 Monday of complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement on Facebook. The four-star general became the first African American Secretary of State in 2001 when he was appointed during Bush's first term in office. "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell," Bush said in a statement on Monday. "He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam....

Former President Trump released a statement on Monday discussing his four-hour deposition in the civil lawsuit involving alleged violence that broke out between protesters and his security guards in 2015, saying he was "pleased to have had the opportunity to tell my side of this ridiculous story." In 2015, a group of protesters of Mexican origin brought a suit against Trump and his head of security, Keith Schiller, following a rally outside Trump Tower protesting his inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants. They alleged that Trump's security assaulted them and infringed on their First Amendment rights to peaceful protest....

Jon Gruden's fall from grace has reached the virtual NFL, as well. The former Las Vegas Raiders head coach, who resigned earlier this week after several of his offensive emails were made public, will be removed from the popular "Madden NFL 22" video game, developer EA Sports announced on Wednesday. Gruden will be replaced with a generic likeness on the Raiders sideline. EA Sports' full statement: EA Sports is committed to taking action in maintaining a culture of inclusion and equity. Due to the circumstances of Jon Gruden's resignation, we are taking steps to remove him from Madden NFL 22....

Gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of Einstein's spacetime—that cross the universe at the speed of light have all sorts of wavelengths, or frequencies. Scientists have not yet managed to detect gravitational waves at extremely low 'nanohertz' frequencies, but new approaches currently being explored are expected to confirm the first low frequency signals quite soon. The main method uses radio telescopes to detect gravitational waves using pulsars—exotic, dead stars, that send out pulses of radio waves with extraordinary regularity. Researchers at the NANOGrav collaboration, for example, use pulsars to time to exquisite precision the rotation periods of a network, or array,...

SEOUL Oct. 19 (Yonhap) North Korea fired an unidentified projectile toward the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said , in a move that may dampen Seoul's push to resume dialogue. The details on the launch were not immediately available...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Parents from Charlotte Catholic High School are upset about a controversial banner displayed by Butler High School cheerleaders before Friday night’s football game. It reads “Sniff, sniff, you smell that?” with the word “privilege” written in white and book ended by dollar signs.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man charged with raping a woman on a commuter train just outside of Philadelphia harassed her for more than 40 minutes while multiple people held up their phones to seemingly record the assault without intervening, authorities said. More than two dozen train stops passed as the man harassed, groped and eventually raped the woman, the police chief for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said at a news conference Monday. Police do not believe a single witness on the train dialed 911. They are investigating whether some bystanders filmed the assault. Both the man and woman got...

Still reeling from the coordinated hit job two weeks ago by “whistleblower” Frances Haugen who appeared on 60 Minutes days before testifying before the U.S. Senate about the social media giant’s practices, Facebook issued a statement Monday decrying a “gotcha campaign” while warning about another hit job involving leaked documents being reported by thirty journalists allegedly being coordinated by the same public relations team behind the previous hit. Facebook’s statement was posted to Twitter: “We expect the press to hold us accountable, given our scale and role in the world. But when reporting misrepresents our actions and motivations, we believe...

ROME — The president of the European Catholic Bishops’ Conferences (COMECE), Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, has rejected European Commission warnings that illegal immigration is being used to “destabilise Europe,” calling instead for the facilitation of migration into the continent. In Sunday’s press release, Cardinal Hollerich expressed his concern about the situation of migrants and asylum seekers, insisting that their “human dignity and fundamental rights must be respected.” “Their right to seek asylum must be protected and states must respect the principle of non-deportation of people in danger back to their country of origin,” the Jesuit cardinal said. Hollerich was writing in...

Pro-life students at Exeter University say they have received death threats over their views on abortion. Christian Concern, which is supporting Students for Life, has warned of an escalation in cancel culture after 7,000 people signed a petition demanding that the group be "abolished". The society exists to equip pro-life students with the tools they need to share their views "in a sensitive and respectful way". The petition against it has been sent along with an open letter to university authorities, but Christian Concern says it follows a "campaign of abuse" against the Students for Life Instagram page. Members of...

The details of the shootout in Beirut over the weekend which killed seven people and injured dozens remained unclear on Sunday morning, as the investigation and finger-pointing continued and as Lebanon prepared to mark two years since anti-government protests swept the nation. The shooting began as Shi'ite Hezbollah and Amal supporters marched through the Tayouneh area of Beirut where it meets Ain El Remmaneh and Chiyah, a site famous for sectarian clashes between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Christians during the 1975 civil war in Lebanon, as it marked the border between east and west Beirut. The Lebanese Forces have rejected the...

The judges refused to grant Western Michigan an emergency stay of U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney’s preliminary injunction against the shot mandate for athletes.Western Michigan University “likely” infringed on the First Amendment rights of 16 Christian student athletes by denying them faith-based exemptions from the school’s COVID-19 shot mandate, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Thursday, Oct. 7. The judges refused to grant Western Michigan an emergency stay of U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney’s preliminary injunction against the shot mandate for athletes. Senior Judge Ralph B. Guy Jr., Senior Judge...