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Condom sales declined precipitously during the pandemic, the world's largest manufacturer of the contraceptive, which saw sales falling as much as 40% in the past two years, told Nikkei. While one could assume that people would have nothing to do "but have sex" indoors because of movement restrictions, that didn't appear to be the situation, Goh Miah Kiat, Karex's CEO, told the media outlet. The Malaysian contraceptive company produces about 5.5 billion condoms a year and is a supplier to brands such as Durex and ONE Condoms. It also produces its own condom brands.

Former wrestling star Hulk Hogan pushed a popular conspiracy theory claiming that beloved actress Betty White, comedian Bob Saget, and legendary actor Sidney Poitier all died after receiving vaccination shots. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, made the comment on a video from YouTube influencer Josh Pray lamenting the death of Saget. The wrestler responded to a commenter who claimed that the "Full House" star had died from the "jab," a nickname for the coronavirus vaccine shot. "100 percent Betty and Sidney were also jabbed they're dropping like flies but they'll never say it," Hogan responded. That comment was...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said there is no evidence that fraud cost Donald Trump re-election as president in 2020 and he wishes Trump would quit claiming that it did. Christie supported Trump’s campaign. But he said that he has used his former skills as a prosecutor to examine the 2020 election and believes that Joe Biden, not Trump, won the election. Christie, who confirmed to WHO 13 News that he is considering another run for president, said that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building was...

The spread of the Omicron variant is pushing Covid towards being an endemic disease that humanity can live with, although it remains a pandemic for now, the European Union's (EU) drug watchdog said Tuesday (Jan 11). The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also expressed doubts about giving a fourth vaccine shot to the general population, saying repeated boosters were not a "sustainable" strategy. "Nobody knows exactly when we will be at the end of the tunnel but we will be there," Dr Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based regulator, told journalists. "With the increase of immunity in population...

Novak Djokovic has sensationally admitted to lying on his entry declaration, saying “human error” was the cause of his faulty entry declaration – amid growing concerns over the world No.1’s movements around the time of his positive Covid result last December. Djokovic took to Instagram on Wednesday as he waited for further clearance on his visa application – which was again delayed by a further 24 hours after further submissions from his legal team over a possible cancellation by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. But in doing so he made the significant admission that he had incorrectly ticked a box on...

In November 2020, when University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie Fierceton won the prestigious and highly competitive Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford — one of just 32 scholars selected from a pool of 2,300 applicants — she was praised by the Ivy League school’s president in a newsletter. “Mackenzie is so deserving of this prestigious opportunity,” declared President Amy Gutmann of the 23-year-old from suburban St. Louis. “As a first-generation [to go to college] low-income student and a former foster youth, Mackenzie is passionate about championing young people [and] dedicating herself to a life of public service.” But a...

A pensioner in India illegally had twelve Covid-19 jabs in less than a year before being caught by the police. Brahamdev Mandal had the dozen vaccines in just 11 months, and even had two within half an hour of each other on the same day. The 84-year-old said he wanted to feel stronger during the pandemic, and said the multiple jabs cured him of his joint pain that he has had for eight years. The serial-vaxxer was able to sign up for extra jabs by using different people's ID and lying to health officials, and is now facing a string...

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams issued a statement Tuesday praising President Biden and Vice President Harris for their speech in Georgia about federal voting rights legislation. Abrams, who did not attend the speech because of a "scheduling conflict," also mentioned Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., in her statement, which suggested support for changing the rules of the Senate to allow Democrat-backed election bills to pass with a simple majority. It is not clear that either Manchin or Sinema will support the change, which would eliminate the filibuster and its 60-vote threshold, at least in the case...

The police department reports that the mountain lion had entered the main lobby area of a condominium, prompting concern. The department responded and was able to confine the animal in a secure space with assistance from property management, at which point the animal was shot with a dart and tranquilized. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the mountain lion was in a poor condition of health and emaciated, which ultimately resulted in the animal being euthanized.

The coronavirus loses about 50 percent of its ability to infect about 10 seconds after it becomes airborne in a typical office environment, according to a new study about how the deadly bug survives in exhaled air. “People have been focused on poorly ventilated spaces and thinking about airborne transmission over meters or across a room,” said Prof. Jonathan Reid, director of the University of Bristol’s Aerosol Research Centre, the Guardian reported.

A senior Federal Bureau of Investigations official repeatedly refused to answer when grilled by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at a hearing on Tuesday whether the federal agency participated in the riot at the Capitol building on January 6. Cruz questioned Jill Sanborn, who is executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, whether any FBI agents participated in the events that unfolded on January 6, which Democrats have called an insurrection. Cruz asked Sanborn, “How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of January 6?” She responded, “Sir, I’m sure you can appreciate that I...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has vowed that if he becomes House Speaker, were the GOP to retake the lower congressional chamber in November, that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) would be stripped of committee assignments. “The Democrats have been creating a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committee,” McCarthy told Breitbart in an interview published Monday. “Never in the history have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on committee.” “If Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there’s no reason...

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled U.S. officials on whether the FBI had any involvement in the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters. During a U.S. Senate hearing, in which national security officials from the Department of Justice testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the threat of domestic terrorism, Cruz pushed a theory that has been made prominent by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. ... Cruz asked a series of questions, including, “How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?” Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National...

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on Congress Tuesday to pass a constitutional amendment banning non-U.S. citizens from voting. “American leaders should be elected by American citizens,” Raffensperger said during a news conference at the Georgia Capitol. “It’s as simple as that.” Raffensperger spoke out Tuesday hours before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were due in Atlanta to drum up public support for Democrat-backed voting rights legislation stalled in the U.S. Senate. The Republican secretary of state’s remarks also came a day after state Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, introduced a state-level...

Newly surfaced emails suggest that the U.S. Department of Education might have played a more important role than previously thought in the creation of a highly controversial letter, which likened concerned parents to domestic terrorists. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House on Aug. 5, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) In a letter (pdf) sent to President Joe Biden on Sept. 29, 2021, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) characterized disruptions at school board meetings as “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crime.” The organization also urged the federal government to invoke...

A family alleges that Riverside County is liable for an employee’s death from COVID-19 and his wife’s debilitating “long-haul” virus symptoms after ignoring his pleas to work from home and implement safeguards at his workplace. Michael Haywood’s widow and one of his adult sons held a news conference Monday, Jan. 10, outside Riverside County Superior Court, where attorney V. James DeSimone’s firm planned to file the lawsuit alleging wrongful death and violating state regulations protecting disabled workers.... ...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, announced Tuesday that she has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.

An undersea fiberoptic cable located between mainland Norway and the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean has been put out of action in a still-mysterious incident. The outage on the subsea communications cable — the furthest north of its kind anywhere in the world — follows an incident last year in which different cables linking an undersea surveillance network off the Norwegian coast were severed, a story that we covered in detail at the time. The latest disruption involves one of two fiberoptic cables that enable communications between the Norwegian mainland and Norwegian-administered Svalbard that lies between the mainland and...

* Mary Onuoha says she was bullied by bosses to make her remove cross at work* NHS worker at Croydon hospital says managers threatened disciplinary action* Nurse, 61, claims other staff were allowed to wear jewellery and religious items* A tribunal found in her favour and said she was constructively dismissed in 2020A Catholic nurse who was bullied out of her job for wearing a cross around her neck at work was unfairly dismissed by the hospital where she had worked for 18 years, an employment tribunal has ruled. NHS theatre practitioner Mary Onuoha claimed that she had faced a...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Amid a dramatic surge in COVID-19 infections, Los Angeles County's public health director Tuesday urged residents to avoid non-essential activities in the coming weeks, particularly those that are indoors and involve mingling with unvaccinated or higher-risk people. Fueled by the omicron variant of COVID-19, the county is experiencing pandemic-high levels of daily infection reports and the highest rate of virus transmission to date. The county on Tuesday reported 34,827 new infections, along with 15 more deaths.