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In a study published in JAMA Network Open today, scientists report on how effective the original vaccine and booster shots are against the COVID-19 Delta and Omicron variants. Researchers in Ontario analyzed data from more than 134,000 people, including those who tested positive for Delta and Omicron infections during December 2021. They found that people who were fully vaccinated (with two doses of an mRNA vaccine, from either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech) experienced a decline in vaccine effectiveness against both Delta and Omicron infections, but the drop was greater against Omicron than against Delta. Among the vaccinated, the shots’ effectiveness declined...

Hurricane Ian could strengthen to a Category 4 storm as it targets Florida, forecasters say. The hurricane made landfall in Cuba about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday just southwest of La Coloma in the western province of Pinar del Río with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters expect the storm to continue to intensify as it makes its way north toward the west coast of Florida, where a hurricane warning has been issued from Chokoloskee to Anclote River, including Tampa Bay, and Dry Tortugas. A number of counties along Florida’s west coast issued evacuation orders....

She is currently represented by David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown in her appeal of that verdict. The actress has also recently hired Kirk Pasich on her legal team in an attempt to get multiple insurance companies to cover her legal bills, which may surpass $15million, Heard's expenses soared over $8million before the Virginia trial even began. Heard's team appears to want homeowner's insurance to cover those bills The battle concerns Travelers Commercial Insurance Company and New York Marine General Insurance Company. Travelers initially sued New York Marine in July 2021 to gain reimbursement for half of what it...

In a little more than a year, the internet will face a major wave of regulation mostly targeted to protect data and fight misinformation. With the Jan. 1, 2024 implementation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom working on the Online Safety Bill, social networks and search engines will be subject to new requirements. The largest internet companies will face regulations that require them to perform annual transparency reports discussing how they recommend content to their users and allow researchers to access data to better understand risks and implement measures to counter illegal content. Still, regulation...

Brothers of Italy's leader Giorgia Meloni wants the European Union to compensate members she claims have lost out since adopting the Euro -- and she’s borrowing a page from U.S. President Donald Trump in a campaign to put her country’s interests first. She spoke exclusively to Bloomberg in Rome before the Italian Elections.

Russian men who are fleeing the country to avoid being drafted into Moscow’s war against Ukraine should seek asylum in the US, the White House said Tuesday. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her regular briefing that the response inside Russia to the so-called “partial mobilization” ordered last week by the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, shows “this war that was started by the Kremlin is unpopular.” “Regardless of their nationality, [people] may apply for asylum in the United States and have their claims adjudicated on a case by case basis,” Jean-Pierre added. “We welcome any folks who are seeking...

Tucker Carlson accurately outlined the most likely suspect of the sabotage against Russia’s Nord Stream I and II pipeline today. When you consider the media blitz by Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, last weekend (ABC, CNN, NBC and CBS); specifically pointing out the U.S. position against Russia; it is almost a certainty that U.S. action was behind the underwater detonation of explosives to take out Nord Stream pipeline system.

HEAVY CRIME 'DIARY OF A WIMPY KID' ACTOR SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR KILLING MOTHER By Mark Gray Wonderwall 8:22am PDT, Sep 27, 2022 Ryan Grantham, whose credits involve "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and "Riverdale," has been sentenced to life in prison for the slaying his mother. Prosecutors said the former actor, 24, confessed to killing his mother in his own GoPro camera after the 2020 incident. "I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me," he said, according to TMZ. Andrew Chin/Getty Images Prosecutors alleged that...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) signed onto the falsely named Inflation Reduction Act in part because he claimed he was getting an energy permitting deal that was going to be helpful to the energy industry. We wrote previously how there was no guarantee that he was going to get the backend of the deal, even though he had to sign aboard the IRA first.Republicans were furious that Manchin sold his alleged principles down the river on this. Normally, you would think they would want things that would be advantageous to energy but not when it was part of a deal to...

“In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to postpone tomorrow’s proceedings,” Thompson and Cheney said.

Russia has just finished a Potemkin referendum conducted in the illegally occupied Ukrainian oblasts (provinces) of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson (see Vladimir Putin to Address Russia; Annexation of Ukraine Provinces and Mobilization Seem to Be on the Table). The “voting” began on September 23, and the question is whether those provinces wish to be annexed to Russia.There are complicating factors. All four oblasts are on the front line of a war between Putin’s invading army and the armed forces of Ukraine. Many, if not most, of the residents, are refugees. The voting began within 48 hours after the announcement....

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe pleaded guilty for a second time on Tuesday to federal charges that they tried to sell secrets about U.S. submarine nuclear propulsion systems to a foreign country. The couple originally pleaded guilty in February but a judge threw out the plea agreements last month after deciding the sentences called for were too low. At the time of his plea, Toebbe conceded he sent a package to a foreign government, listing a return address in Pittsburgh that contained a sample of restricted data and instructions for establishing relationship to buy additional restricted data. Toebbe said he began...

Treasury Bond yields have broken a downtrend stretching back to the 1980s.The Fed told us it would be a bad year for Treasury bonds when it announced earlier this year it would reduce the number of bonds held on its balance sheet to help curb inflation. Nevertheless, their poor performance has been jaw-dropping. The 20-year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is down 34% from its peak in December, and 2-year Treasury bond yields (yields move inverse to bond prices) have spiked from below 0.80% to 4.3% this year alone. Bonds' rapid decline has caused steep losses for investors who built...

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nS0Fdayj8YYet another electric vehicle disaster is making the rounds on the internet, this time as a YouTuber with over 1.4 million followers tried towing an ancient 1930s Ford Model A truck with a contemporary Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup. Despite setting the bar ridiculously low – he just wanted to tow it just over 100 miles round trip – the entire experiment failed in a spectacularly “complete and total disaster.” Youtuber Tyler Hoover says in the video, seen below, that “[i]f a truck towing 3,500 pounds can’t even go 100 miles — that is ridiculously stupid. He then...

When Ukrainian national Kateryna Rietz-Rakul first heard that Germany wants to take in Russian deserters, she thought it was a bad joke. "I thought this can't possibly be true, I couldn't believe it at first. Until I watched the evening news," says the interpreter, who has lived and worked in Germany for 20 years. There, she was amazed to see German politicians from all three ruling parties literally falling over themselves with offers of help for the Russian conscientious objectors who are seeking to leave the country since President Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization last week. "Those who hate...

Two gunmen killed a teenage football player and injured three of his teammates in an ambush-style attack outside of a Pennsylvania high school on Tuesday afternoon, police said. The violence erupted outside the Roxborough High School in Philadelphia just after 4:40 p.m. as the boys were leaving a football scrimmage against two other schools, according to police. The gunmen opened fire from a light green Ford Explorer, killing a 14-year-old boy and striking two other teenage boys. The murdered teenager was shot once in the left side of his chest. He was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes after the...

An increasing number of fake prescription pills that contain potentially deadly fentanyl are helping drive overdose death rates to record levels in the U.S., including some now manufactured in rainbow colors designed to look like candy, federal officials said Tuesday. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are working to crack down on violent drug cartels in Mexico believed to be trafficking the drugs into the U.S., Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Between May and September, the DEA and local police around the country seized more than 10 million fentanyl pills and hundreds of pounds of powder, he said.

The US government expects households to see their heating bills increase by 54% compared with last winter. U.S. consumers will spend more to heat their homes this winter than last year due to surging energy prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected in its winter fuels outlook on Wednesday. US natural gas has climbed to its highest price since 2014 and is up roughly 90% over the last year. The wholesale price of heating oil has more than doubled in the last 12 months. The biggest reason for this winter’s higher heating bills is the recent increase in prices...

The “partial mobilization” of Russian men to fight in Putin’s War in Ukraine is shaping up pretty much the fiasco we thought it would be (see Vladimir Putin to Address Russia; Annexation of Ukraine Provinces and Mobilization Seem to Be on the Table). It is equal parts black comedy, political thriller, and tragedy. But, don’t worry, the comedic and thriller elements will go away very soon. The war in Ukraine has left Russia facing a military personnel crisis. About 75% of Russia’s regular ground forces participated in the opening act of the Special Military Operation (SMO). These were reinforced by...

HAS ANYONE HEARD THIS REPORT? PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: “PUTIN LEFT MOSCOW TO HIS SECRET PALACE NEAR LAKE VALDI BETWEEN MOSCOW & ST PETERBURG WHEN RUSSIA & RUSSIA’S ADMINISTTATION WAS IN SUCH A MESS! LEAVING HIS COUNTRY WITHOUT A LEADER WHHILE HIS COUNTRY WAS ON FIRE & CITIZENS WERE WAITING FOR A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS. PRO-PUTIN POLITICAL OFFICIALS STATED THAT THE RUSSIAN LEADER WENT TO THE LUXURY COMPLEX TO REST HIS BODY AND SOUL.”