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Thousands of workers at Facebook parent Meta reportedly didn’t get a like from Mark Zuckerberg on their performance reviews — an ominous sign that more layoffs are in the offing. The tech company, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, gave some 7,000 employees, or 10% of Meta’s workforce, subpar reviews, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Employees who score low on the key performance metrics often leave the company, sources told the paper. Zuckerberg will consider another round of layoffs if not enough depart, the people said. Last November, Meta culled 11,000 jobs — or roughly 13% of its 87,000...

More than half of Black Californians said there was a time in the last few years when they thought they would have received better health care if they had belonged to a different racial or ethnic group, according to a report released Thursday. By comparison, 27% of Latinos, 12% of Asian people and 4% of white people responded the same way, the report said. The report from the California Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on health issues in the state, summarized results from a survey that asked more than 1,700 Californians about their views on health equity, health...

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid said Thursday on her show “The ReidOut” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is implementing “literal government thought control.” Discussing DeSantis, Reid said, “What do you make of the fact he seems to be putting the whole weight of his appeal on attacking black people and brown immigrants and gay people and trans people?” Political panelist David Jolly said, “Ron DeSantis is tapping into the bloodstream of a party that wants to take America back 50 years.”

SINGAPORE: The death of a 28-year-old man 21 days after his COVID-19 vaccination has been ruled a medical misadventure, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (Feb 17). It is the first death related to COVID-19 vaccination locally, MOH said in a press release. The Bangladeshi national received his first dose of the Moderna/Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine on Jun 18, 2021, and died on Jul 9 after collapsing at his workplace earlier that day. The State Coroner on Wednesday certified the man's cause of death as myocarditis, said MOH.

CLAIM: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is blaming former President Donald Trump for the train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, claiming, “we’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation,” and citing a “braking rule” that was withdrawn under the Trump administration. VERDICT: False. While it is true that in 2018 the Department of Transportation (DOT) withdrew a proposed rule requiring trains carrying certain dangerous chemicals to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes, this rule would not have applied to the train that derailed in East Palestine on February 3. In addressing the train derailment on Tuesday, Buttigieg...

We are going to need a new industry that simply spends its time fact-checking the so-called “fact-checkers.” That’s the story after a new landmark study published in The Lancet offered vindication to everyone who touted natural immunity to COVID-19 as an alternative to vaccination. For years, the powers that be, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House, and the press, dismissed the idea of taking natural immunity into account when debating vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. They were wrong, so much so that even the mainstream media are having to admit it. ... This study also puts to rest another...

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued G1-Minor and G2-Moderate Geomagnetic Storm Watches that will run from Feb. 16-18 due to the continuing effects of the Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). According to the SWPC, the geomagnetic storm may affect satellite operations and could even lead to weak power-grid fluctuations. In addition, migratory animals could be affected, and the Northern Lights may be visible farther south than usual, like in northern Michigan and Maine. A second CME was also observed on the sun on Wednesday, and officials said the effects could begin to impact Earth starting late Friday morning or Friday afternoon.

Small pico balloons typically range between $12 and $180 while an F-22 Raptor is estimated to be around $200 million ... Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Thursday to criticize Joe Biden for ordering an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down what may have been a hobby club’s science project off the coast of Alaska earlier last week. Cruz, R-Texas, joked that Biden’s decision to authorize the $200 million fighter jet to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may have been a $12 balloon serves as a "powerful deterrence" to high school students interested in creating their own...

Two years ago today - February 17th 2021 - I was getting ready for another guest-hosting stint on the EIB Network when my friend Kraig Kitchin, the founder of Premiere Radio Networks and (since Kit Carson's death) Rush's acting "chief of staff", telephoned with devastating news: a year after his diagnosis of advanced lung cancer, Rush had died that morning. We had all known, since the day he announced his condition, how the story ends - but he had fought against it so hard just to be here for tomorrow's show, or the day after that, the news still came...

To look at the Tully monster, it’s reasonable to say that it’s reminiscent of a slug. At its mid-body, what are believed to be eyes protrude outward on two stalks, like those of a slug. However, in the place where one might assume the mouth would be located is a long, thin appendage with a claw at its end. This claw appears to have teeth. In 2016, a group of scientists conducted a study and said the Tully monster had finally been classified. Their evidence suggested that it was, in fact, a vertebrate. The study focused on prominent features in...

Five former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith made their first court appearances with their lawyers before a judge in Shelby County Criminal Court. The officers were fired after an internal police investigation into the Jan. 7 arrest of Nichols, who died in a hospital three days later. The officers pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. They are all out...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told FOX News ahead of his trip to the Munich Security Conference that supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia is "the single most important event going on in the world right now.""I'm sorry public opinion is sliding, but I want to reassure the American people, this is enormously important," McConnell told FNC's Dana Perino. "We need to stay together on a bipartisan basis in our country and defend these people who are bravely fighting for freedom and for democracy in Ukraine."

In a deliberate and calculated move, Illinois Democrats are taking advantage of their supermajority grip in the legislature and have introduced legislation to create and expand the rights of illegal aliens who reside in Illinois. The Noncitizens Rights Act, which was introduced last Tuesday by Democrat State Sen. Rachel Ventura, is loaded with legislative language that protects illegal immigrants, including restricting law enforcement or an agency from inquiring about a person’s immigration status if they are working with a government agency and would require law enforcement and government offices to post signs that a person will not be asked about...

“‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted’” (Matthew 5:4). The world still operates according to the old popular song lyrics that say, “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.” This philosophy basically tells us to hide all our problems and pretend to be happy; and of course people apply this outlook to sin all the time. Nevertheless Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Godly mourning and confession of sins bring the only kind of happiness worth having—godly happiness that no amount of human effort, optimistic pretense, or positive thinking can...

The church and the synagogue are two separate and opposed things. There is a barrier between the church, the synagogue, the Gospel and Jewish people. The first of what we call “church” was in Jerusalem. The leader was James. He wrote one of the earliest epistles. James 2:2 says, “If a man comes into your meeting, into your assembly, …” The word here for into your assembly or church is synagogue. That’s where we get the word synagogue from. The first churches were in synagogues. The first church in Jerusalem was in a synagogue and that is the mother of...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Mark 8:36This short and direct question is worth much meditation. In Mark’s Gospel, this line comes within the context of Jesus teaching about the requirements of being His disciple. And it comes after Jesus began to explicitly teach that He Himself would suffer and die as the Christ.Think about this question above, starting with the first part of the question. “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world…” Do you want to gain the whole world? For most...

This article is a selection from the November/December 2022 issue of Smithsonian magazineSubscribe Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, from a 15th-century woodcut. Bridgeman ImagesThe Zilbersteins were interested not in the words on the page, however, but something else—physical remnants of the prince himself, including molecule fragments from his sweat, saliva and tears. Their work harnesses breathtaking advances in a field known as proteomics, which seeks to understand the interaction of proteins within living cells and organisms. Proteins have long been studied in the context of biology and medicine, but spectacularly sensitive analytical techniques now allow researchers to...

The immunity generated from an infection was found to be “at least as high, if not higher” than that provided by two doses of an mRNA vaccine.Immunity acquired from a Covid infection provides strong, lasting protection against the most severe outcomes of the illness, according to research published Thursday in The Lancet — protection, experts say, that’s on par with what’s provided through two doses of an mRNA vaccine. Infection-acquired immunity cut the risk of hospitalization and death from a Covid reinfection by 88% for at least 10 months, the study found. “This is really good news, in the sense...

Forget nuclear war or global warming: America is still 'fundamentally unprepared' for zoonotic diseases - the biggest threat to humankind, says analysis by Harvard and NYU Infections that jump from animals to humans could spark the next pandemic, scientists have warned Experts say the US still has 'blindspots' in its regulations raising the risk of an outbreak in the country READ MORE: WHO warns nations to 'prepare' for bird flu pandemic after infections spotted in mammals With the US teetering on the brink of nuclear war with Russia and gloomy warnings about climate change, many believe these events could end...

For nearly eight months, 23 Fulton County residents met in secret to investigate a hotly contested question: did former President Donald Trump and his allies break Georgia laws by meddling in the 2020 election? On Thursday, the public got its first glimpse into what they found as a judge released five pages of their final report. Members of the special grand jury agreed unanimously that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election as Trump and his supporters had claimed. A majority of the panel also recommended that prosecutors should pursue perjury charges against at least one...