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A political gap in excess deaths widened after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, study says BY BILL CHAPPELL A new study finds a gap in excess deaths opened between Republicans and Democrats in 2021, after vaccine access was widened to all adults. Here, a Walgreens worker prepares vaccine shots for school staff in Dayton, Ohio, in February 2021. Image: Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images The pandemic inflicted higher rates of excess deaths on both Republicans and Democrats. But after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, Republican voters in Florida and Ohio died at a higher rate than their counterparts, according to a new study. Researchers...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Biden is the one “Obstructing Justice,” not me. He didn’t have the PRA, because he wasn’t President. I did. He is fighting hard so they don’t see the documents that he took, especially the Classified Documents taken when he was a Senator, a major no, no !

Jacob Wallace, PhD1; Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, PhD2; Jason L. Schwartz, PhD1 Author Affiliations Article Information JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 24, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.1154 Key Points Question Was political party affiliation a risk factor associated with excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and Ohio? Findings In this cohort study evaluating 538 159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021, excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before. These differences were concentrated in counties with...

Nationwide maps reveal how access to children's gender-affirming care is eroding across parts of America - as the issue becomes one of the key political battlegrounds heading into the 2024 Presidential Election. The maps show how minors seeking this care, which can include hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and genital reconstruction, now have to travel as long as nine hours to receive the treatments. Up until the wave of state bans began in 2020 and 2021, there were no restrictions at the federal level for access to these treatments, which in cases are irreversible. As of May 2023, 20 states have...

A cryptocurrency project described as being "dystopian" has been launched by AI entrepreneur Sam Altman. Worldcoin gives people digital coins in exchange for a scan of their eyeballs. In sites around the world thousands of people queued to gaze into silver orbs on day one of the project's full launch. The BBC visited a scanning site in London where people received free crypto tokens after going through the process. Mr Altman, the chief executive of Open AI which built chat bot ChatGPT says he hopes the initiative will help confirm if someone is a human or a robot. "Worldcoin could...

Tunisian rapper El General was just 21 when his haunting, raw video Rais Lebled, or Mr President, went viral in late 2010. Standing in a darkened, sewage strewn alley - festooned in graffiti - he ripped into the country's then dictator, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali - in a way none had dared before. Born Hamada Ben Amor, the fiery young man's explosive song gave voice to the anger, frustration and despair of a whole generation. "I knew there would be consequences, which scared me due to my young age. I realised the danger of what I had done," he tells...

(Last Updated On: July 17, 2023) NATIONAL HOT FUDGE SUNDAE DAY | JULY 25 On July 25th, National Hot Fudge Sundae Day takes a turn representing National Ice Cream Month in delicious style. Feast on this tasty ice cream dessert that combines hot and cold with a cherry on top. Even more important to note, this dessert has been served since 1906. #HotFudgeSundaeDay Given that the hot fudge sundae is a variation of the classic sundae, making one is a cinch. Simply put a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream in a dish. Add hot fudge sauce. Top it...

Released on: 1971-05-17

(Last Updated On: July 17, 2023) NATIONAL WINE AND CHEESE DAY | JULY 25 On July 25th, we celebrate the ultimate pairing of wine and cheese. National Wine and Cheese Day provides an opportunity to sample some of our favorites. #NationalWineAndCheeseDay The pairing of wines and cheese has been a regionalized tradition. Across wine-producing cultures, many pair their regional wines with local cheeses. For example, the French Brie region is noted for its tannic wine varietals. Their Beaujolais goes well with the Brie produced in the area. However, that doesn’t stop a sommelier or cheesemonger from making other recommendations to...

Democrats filed a lawsuit on Thursday to allow Wisconsin voters to return absentee ballots in drop boxes, moving to overturn a decision from the previous conservative-controlled state Supreme Court last year. The suit was filed against the Wisconsin Elections Commission by the national firm Elias Law Group, which leans Democrat. Attorneys argue the ban “burdens the right to vote”, and forces voters to depend on the United States Postal Service’s “unsecured mailboxes.” The Democrats are challenging the state Supreme Court’s ruling to bar the use of absentee ballot drop boxes after former President Donald Trump alleged absentee voting contained fraudulent...

Explanation: What do the famous Eagle Nebula star pillars look like in X-ray light? To find out, NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory peered in and through these interstellar mountains of star formation. It was found that in M16 the dust pillars themselves do not emit many X-rays, but a lot of small-but-bright X-ray sources became evident. These sources are shown as bright dots on the featured image which is a composite of exposures from Chandra (X-rays), XMM (X-rays), JWST (infrared), Spitzer (infrared), Hubble (visible), and the VLT (visible). What stars produce these X-rays remains a topic of research, but some...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence shot to the highest level in two years this month as inflationary pressures eased and the American economy continued to show resilience in the face of dramatically higher interest rates. The Conference Board, a business research group, said its consumer confidence index rose to 117 in July from a revised 110.1 in June. The gauge beat the 110.5 that economists had expected and was the highest since July 2021. The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months. Both improved in July. The future expectations...

A panel of international experts investigating the 2014 abduction of 43 students in southern Mexico said on Tuesday that it was ending its inquiry after being repeatedly lied to and misled by the Mexican armed forces about their role in the crime. Members of the Mexican military misrepresented their whereabouts during the crime, denied access to key documents and withheld details about their involvement in the disappearance and its subsequent cover-up, the experts said in a report released on Tuesday, their sixth and final assessment of a notorious event that remains shrouded in mystery. ---- “It’s all lies, one after...

THE SYSTEM OF ocean currents that bring warm water to the north Atlantic Ocean is likely to collapse by the middle of the century if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, a new study has found. Researchers in Denmark studying the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) expect it to collapse this century under current projections of future emissions. The study, published today in scientific journal Nature, expects that the AMOC will collapse some time between 2025 and 2095, with “high confidence” that it will happen as soon as the middle of the century. The AMOC regulates how heat moves from...

The White House is blasting a popular Fox News host for his commentary on the Holocaust this week. During an episode Monday of the network’s top-watched table talk program “The Five,” the panel discussed the state of Florida’s new controversial standards for teaching Black history, which direct teachers to include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” After a liberal member of the show’s panel asked if the same standard could be applied to Jews who were captured and tortured during the Holocaust, Greg Gutfeld chimed in. The late night...

Over the years, we’ve learned that Biden is a mean, vicious man… I am a dog person. I adore dogs and consider both dogs and humans incredibly lucky that, about 40,000 years ago, they made a pact to look out for each other. Interestingly, when you match humans to their dogs, they tend to take on each other’s traits. This isn’t just in looks but also in personality. Friendly people usually have friendly dogs, while nasty people have nasty dogs. And that brings me to the White House dogs. It’s amazing how often dogs and their owners look and act...

Cops have pulled whatever evidence they could from the “very cluttered” Long Island property of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann — and his family is welcome to move back in, officials said Tuesday. It’s still unclear whether Heuermann killed any of his victims in the ramshackle Massapequa Park home, where he lived with his wife and adult daughter and stepson, authorities said. “The evidence doesn’t point one way or the other,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters at a press briefing at the scene. “Nothing of note” was found when police dug up Heuermann’s backyard “as...

Paul Sperry @paulsperry_ NEW: Special Counsel Jack Smith has spent $5.4 million investigating President Trump, while Special Counsel Robert Hur has spent $600,000 investigating President Biden

Nearly 5,000 Afghan migrants have been deported within 24 hours through the Milak border crossing in Sistan and Baluchistan province.According to an Iranian border commander, 4,767 “illegal” Afghan immigrants have reportedly been sent back to Afghanistan at the Milak border crossing in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan in the past 24 hours. Immigration officials cited “illegal entry, stay, and passport expiration” as the main reasons for deporting the migrants. According to Parviz Ghasemzada, Iran’s border commander for the area, Foreigners must enter, remain and leave Iran legally, Tasnim News Agency reported. He warned that anyone trying to enter Iran...

Florida’s absent Governor, Ron DeSantis, has dumped ANOTHER one third of his staff in his bid to stop the massive cash hemorrhaging brought about by the profligate spending of donor cash under the stewardship of amateur campaign manager Generra Peck, POLITICO has reported.The news comes a week after the DeSantis team dumped up to a dozen staff in cost-cutting measures, and just days after they spent nearly $100,000 schmoozing donors in Utah, attempting to convince them that a third campaign “reset” would deliver the results they need. The subject matter is covered extensively in The Campaign Trail podcast episode 4:...