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Former President Barack Obama called out what he perceived as a double standard in media coverage of the tragedy of the OceanGate Titan submersible versus the migrant boat that sank off the coast of Greece last week. In an interview with CNN host Christiane Amanpour in Athens, Greece Thursday night, the 44th president railed against "inequality" in our "democracy" and claimed the fact that news of the missing OceanGate sub dominated the news cycle, while the sinking of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea did not, is an example of this "inequality." Obama noted that "democracy is not going...

A Hillary Clinton campaigner has received backlash online after claiming that parents who support admission tests and gifted programs are part of the 'far right.' Amanda Litman made the comments last week while reacting to the results of a New York City parent council election that saw candidates endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE) win a majority of seats. PLACE supports academic screenings policies like the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, as well as expanding accelerated curriculum options and gifted and talented programs, which critics say leads to segregation. The group also opposes lottery-based...

Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the FBI during a press conference on Friday amid Republican frustration over the agency stonewalling their requests for information related to Hunter Biden. “I certainly understand that some have chosen to attack the integrity of the Justice Department as components and its employees by claiming that we do not treat like cases alike,” he said, adding, “This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy and essential to the safety of the American people. Nothing could be further from the truth.” Garland stated: You’ve all heard me say many times that...

So, I very seldom drink coca cola (or even soda) anymore but my two brothers drink it alot. Anyway, they mentioned the other day that the coca cola is going flat a lot sooner than it used to. Well, I just cracked one open and drank half of it then let it sit for about 30 minutes before deciding to finish it off. Yep, absolutely flat. Never before has coca cola gotten flat this quick. I swear it seems like they've cut back on the carbonation. Anyone else that drinks coca cola notice this?

Two whistleblowers told Congress that IRS investigators recommended charging Hunter Biden with attempted tax evasion and other felonies, which are far more serious crimes than what the president’s son has agreed to plead guilty to, according to transcripts of their private interviews with lawmakers. The IRS whistleblowers said the recommendation called for Hunter Biden to be charged with tax evasion and filing a false tax return – both felonies – for 2014, 2018 and 2019. The IRS also recommended that prosecutors charge him with failing to pay taxes on time, a misdemeanor, for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, according...

Authorities in Vietnam said Friday they will prosecute 84 people accused of being involved in deadly attacks on two commune offices in central Dak Lak province and ordered them held in pre-trial detention. It isn’t clear who was behind the June 11 attacks, which left nine people dead, or what motivated them. On Friday, the Ministry of Public Security said it had confirmed that “organizations and individuals from overseas” had been involved, without getting more specific. “Materials and evidence collected by security forces show that the incident took place with the support and guidance of several organizations and individuals from...

Scientists have just discovered that the drug dimethylfumarate can block blood clotting during infection, offering hope that it could be used to treat a number of conditions, such a life-threatening disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), which can occur in serious infections with bacteria that lead to sepsis or in response to viral infections such as COVID-19. Dr. Tristram Ryan and Professor Luke O'Neill describe how dimethylfumarate and a related experimental drug called 4-OI can stop coagulation by decreasing production of a clotting factor called Tissue Factor. They have shown that the mechanism involves a block in proteins called interferons, which promote...

The average American household is now spending $3,631 on takeout food every year - but there is one area where residents spend far above the national average. People living in the District of Columbia typically spend $6,241 a year on takeout - or $120 a week per household - according to a new study by Betway. Hawaii residents came in second, with the average home forking out $4,647 per year, followed by Maine in third with a typical spend of $4,499, Vermont with $4,443 and New Hampshire with $4,402. Oklahoma is the state where people are spending the least, with...

As men age, some of their cells lose the very thing that makes them biological males—the Y chromosome—and this loss hampers the body's ability to fight cancer, according to research. The study found that loss of the Y chromosome helps cancer cells evade the body's immune system. This common impact of the aging process in men results in aggressive bladder cancer, but somehow also renders the disease more vulnerable—and responsive—to a standard treatment called immune checkpoint inhibitors. In humans, each cell normally has one pair of sex chromosomes; men have one X and one Y chromosome, while women have two...

Two Republican lawmakers have reintroduced legislation in the House to block the SEC's climate disclosure rule proposal. The bill, originally introduced by Reps. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and Andy Barr, R-Ky., in December, would insert statutory language into both the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to instruct that the SEC only require an issuer to disclose information if it's determined "that such information is important with respect to a voting or investment decision regarding such issuer." "The desire to massively expand the authority, scope, and reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission under Gary Gensler...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s most populous county is suing more than a dozen large fossil fuel companies to recover costs related to extreme weather events linked to climate change. The lawsuit filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges the combined carbon pollution the companies emitted was a substantial factor in causing and exacerbating a 2021 heat dome that killed 69 people, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Multnomah County is home to Portland and known nationally for mild weather and rain. The companies named in the lawsuit include Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, among others. Multnomah County is...

A study led by researchers has shown that prazosin, a drug used to treat high blood pressure, can prevent posttraumatic headaches. Dr. Murray Raskind explained that few treatment options exist for this type of headache. The FDA approved prazosin to treat hypertension in 1976. It has been widely used "off-label" to treat conditions such as PTSD-associated nightmares and enlarged prostate. Participants took gradually increasing doses of prazosin for five weeks before receiving the maximum dose for 12 weeks. The study showed that the drug was well-tolerated. Before the trial began, study participants had an average of 18 headache days each...

Republican voters see Donald Trump as a more favorable GOP candidate than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race, and the former president has huge advantages in key demographic groups, according to a poll released Wednesday by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist.Trump has a 76% favorable rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared with 67% for DeSantis. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., notched 50%.White voters without a college degree, with 85%, say they have a favorable rating of Trump, compared with 60% for DeSantis, while women (81-61), white evangelical Christians (81-60), people with an income of less than $50,000 a year (83-59)...

In a study, researchers revealed that carrying excess belly fat is related to greater inflammation and mortality in COVID-19 patients. "While treating patients with COVID-19, we noticed that obese patients with predominantly abdominal fat tended to experience more severe disease courses and worse outcomes (A, B)," says Tadashi Hosoya. To test this, the researchers used two types of obese mice: ob/ob mice, which are susceptible to putting on abdominal fat, and db/db mice, which put on fat all over. Leptin signaling, which regulates appetite, is impaired in both types of mice, leading them to become obese from overeating. These two...

Explanation: Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (top right) is a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy, at least 5 times the size of our own very large Milky Way. The appearance of this giant galaxy's distorted and stretched out spiral arms suggests the magnificent wings of a giant bird. Of course its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. It lies about 200 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock. Lined with star-forming regions, the distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's gravitational interaction with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970, seen just above the giant...

After the Supreme Court ruled that states lack standing to sue President Joe Biden’s administration for not enforcing federal immigration law, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says he will reinstate the agency’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders that shield most of the nation’s illegal aliens from arrest and deportation. “We applaud the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Mayorkas said: DHS looks forward to reinstituting these guidelines, which had been effectively applied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to focus limited resources and enforcement actions on those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security....

BEIRUT: An illegal fishing method that uses explosives is being blamed for the rising numbers of sharks off the coast of Lebanon, amid social media panic about sightings and possible attacks. stalled warning signs and told swimmers to be aware in the water following posts on social media showing sharks close to popular beaches. Videos have shown the predators off the Sarafand-Zahrani shore to the south and off the Kaslik complex in Jounieh, while fishermen were recorded on Friday catching a small shark off Ouzai to the south of Beirut. Mohammed Al-Sarji, a marine expert and spokesman for the Lebanon...

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Wolf told the team that she didn’t want them asking interviewees about Hunter’s father or ‘the big guy.’ The night before an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) criminal investigation team began looking into Hunter Biden’s tax crimes was set to conduct key interviews and approach Hunter for a consented search of his home, FBI headquarters allegedly tipped off “people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden,” thwarting the investigation, according to a whistleblower testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee released Thursday. Starting in January 2020, IRS criminal supervisory special agent and whistleblower Gary Shapley and his team of...

..."The Ministry of Defense is trying to deceive the public and the president and spin the story that there were insane levels of aggression from the Ukrainian side and that they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO block," the Russian businessman said. "The special operation was started for a completely different reason." Prigozhin was echoing a main reason that Putin gave for justifying his decision to invade Ukraine last February—NATO expansion near Russia's border—but avoided naming the Russian leader. Instead, Prigozhin ramped up his months-long criticism of Shoigu. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine was a "poorly...