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U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told his Russian counterpart Monday that Washington is ready to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the White House said in a statement. Sullivan told Yuriy Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that "any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions," the White House said.

President Joe Biden coughed throughout his speech on coronavirus, even after White House staff claimed he was asymptomatic after coming into contact with a person who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The president spoke in a hoarse voice and coughed repeatedly as he spoke about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, urging Americans to get vaccinated. Biden did not wear a mask while speaking, and walked away from the podium without putting his mask back on, even after asking all Americans to wear masks indoors. But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president did not have coronavirus...

Imaginary numbers are necessary to accurately describe reality, two new studies have suggested. Imaginary numbers are what you get when you take the square root of a negative number, and they have long been used in the most important equations of quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that describes the world of the very small. When you add imaginary numbers and real numbers, the two form complex numbers, which enable physicists to write out quantum equations in simple terms. But whether quantum theory needs these mathematical chimeras or just uses them as convenient shortcuts has long been controversial. In fact,...

The rhetoric on Kremlin-funded state television is amping up the sense of urgency around Russian President Vladimir Putin’s NATO “ultimatum.” Olga Skabeeva, the host of state TV show 60 Minutes, said Tuesday: “The level of anxiety has reached its maximum. We’re 20 days away from the expiration of the ultimatum and the stakes are rising, even though it seems they couldn’t be any higher.” One day after Moscow submitted a draft of its Russia-U.S. security treaty, containing demands that NATO roll back its military deployments in Europe and deny membership to Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei...

Black Lives Matter co-founder Bree Newsome Bass is calling for more draconian COVID-19 restrictions to be enacted as the White House takes on new pandemic-response actions almost two years into the crisis. "Shut sh** the f*** down and stop spreading the virus from person to person like we should've done in March 2020 so we wouldn't still be dealing with this 2 years later. Folks are not understanding that we're just creating conditions for a vaccine-resistant super variant," Newsome Bass tweeted Monday morning. Newsome Bass expressed she is "so blown how we went from knowing exactly what needed to happen...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu), the moral lodestar of today’s Democrat party, is unhappy with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for rejecting Biden’s handlers’ breathtakingly expensive and wasteful socialism and climate change fantasy bill. Given the Democrat leadership’s abject fear of appearing to be “Islamophobic” by crossing Omar, this could be the most serious challenge yet to Manchin’s role as a sane man in the party of liars, looters, and lunatics.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) has announced he will not cooperate with the “illegitimate” House January 6 committee after he was asked to answer questions about the “Stop the Steal” rally that took place at the Capitol. Perry is the first member of Congress to be pursued by the Jan. 6 committee, but the committee has sent out dozens of subpoenas to President Donald Trump’s former White House staff. Over the course of its months-long investigation, the committee has yet to turn up any significant evidence to back up allegations that the Jan. 6 rally was the result of a premeditated...

We will be in San Diego tomorrow. Can some of the locals tell us about Covid dining policy or restrictions in the city? Thanks in advance for your help.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Tuesday she is open to discussing proposals to overhaul an expanded child tax credit included in President Biden's American Rescue Plan that is set to expire in the next few days. “I am open to proposals that would support working families and reduce childhood poverty and look forward to working with colleagues of both parties on bipartisan solutions,” Collins said in a statement to the Bangor Daily News. If the expanded child tax credit is allowed to expire, monthly payments will end for the families of about 60 million children. The Daily News noted...

'The Next Revolution' host slams President Biden for being an incompetent leader #FoxNews #TheNextRevolution

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) has tested positive for COVID-19, she said Tuesday in a statement. Lee, who is fully vaccinated and had also gotten a booster shot, said she received her positive test result this week. “Fortunately, I have only mild cold-like symptoms, but I know it could have been much worse had I not been vaccinated and boosted,” she said. “I am isolating and will follow all of the required health protocols to keep my loved ones, my staff, and my community safe.” Lee is at least the fifth member of Congress this week to announce having tested positive...

The US Missile Defence Agency (MDA) signed a contract this month with Stratolaunch to develop the Talon-A hypersonic test vehicle to simulate Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons. Dr Daniel Millman, chief technology officer of Stratolaunch, stated that the company aims to provide the MDA with “a threat-representative and threat-replicating target that allows them to understand how to engage and intercept hypersonic threats.” He did not reveal further details about the company’s contract with the MDA. Hypersonic weapons are designed to defeat current missile defense systems by flying at five times the speed of sound and performing evasive maneuvers during their...

(CNN)President Joe Biden on Tuesday gave credit to the Trump administration for the development of the Covid-19 vaccine and praised his predecessor, Donald Trump, for getting a booster shot -- marking a rare moment where the two men have found common ground since Inauguration Day. "I got my booster shot as soon as they were available," Biden said during a speech from the White House about his administration's efforts to address the Omicron variant of Covid-19, adding, "and just the other day former President Trump announced he had gotten his booster shot."

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he will hold a news conference on January 6, on the one year anniversary of the riot at the United States Capitol. “Why isn’t the Unselect Committee of highly partisan political hacks investigating the CAUSE of the January 6th protest, which was the rigged Presidential Election of 2020?,” Trump wrote in a statement. “Does anybody notice that they want to stay as far away from that topic as possible, the numbers don’t work for them, or even come close. The only thing they can do is not talk about it. Look at what...

Dr. Fauci says Americans should ban their family members from holiday gatherings if they are unvaxxed: "If there's an unvaccinated person, I would say; 'I'm very sorry, but not this time, maybe another time when this is all over.'"

BERLIN (AP) — Members of Germany's biggest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader, the party said Friday. Merz's election with a strong mandate appears to mark at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Making his third run for the CDU's top post, he took 62.1% support in a ballot of the party's membership to beat two centrist contenders. A party convention next month will have to sign off officially on the membership vote, but that should only be a formality. Armin Laschet,...

Brazilian tour guide Marcos Renan Fagundes de Macedo dresses up as Santa Claus every year to deliver toys to underprivileged children in São Paulo •The 32-year-old was on his way to deliver gifts on Sunday when his 1969 Volkswagen Beetle broke down •The married father-of-two had forgotten to turn off the headlights while he was handing out gifts in the Bertioga neighborhood of Vicente de Carvalho II •The car broke down in the middle of a highway and they were able to refuel it but then noticed that the battery had been drained by the lights •Despite being able to...

For nearly a century, the cloistered nuns of the Monastery of the Angels have lived quietly on a rambling four-acre property just beneath the “H” of Los Angeles’ famous Hollywood sign. From this incongruous location, they bake their famous pumpkin bread and make candies to sell at their gift shop and online. They also send a steady stream of prayer heavenward 24 hours a day. Now, however, it appears that the nuns of the Monastery of the Angels are about to be booted. The Dominican Order that oversees the monastery said it no longer meets the criteria designated by canon...

Iran has implied that its regional foe, Saudi Arabia, may have blocked efforts to save the life of its ambassador to Yemen, who contracted coronavirus there but was unable to be repatriated immediately for urgent medical treatment. Riyadh controls the airspace around the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and the ambassador was flown out on an Iraqi military aircraft after negotiations by the Oman government with Saudi Arabia. The Wall Street Journal had reported that Riyadh said there were no signs the ambassador was seriously ill and that in return for allowing Irlu to leave Yemen, Riyadh had asked the Houthis to...