ReportWire

Tag: Bowling Green

  • French authorities arrest Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at a Paris airport

    French authorities arrest Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at a Paris airport

    [ad_1]

    The founder and CEO of the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram was detained at a Paris airport, French media reported Sunday.

    What You Need To Know

    • French broadcast media say the founder and CEO of the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram has been detained at a Paris airport
    • Pavel Durov, a dual French and Russian citizen, was arrested at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, according to broadcasters LCI and TF1
    • French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press Sunday, in line with regulations during an ongoing investigation
    • Durov was the subject of a French arrest warrant on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other offenses, French media reported

    Pavel Durov was detained at the Paris Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, according to broadcasters LCI and TF1.

    Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, attached to the French customs department, notified Durov that he was being placed in police custody, the broadcasters said.

    French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday, in line with regulations during an ongoing investigation.

    French media reported that Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France based on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and allowing the sharing of content linked to sexual exploitation of minors.

    Western governments have often criticized Telegram for lack of content moderating on the messaging service.

    Russian government officials expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest, with some highlighting what they said was the West’s double standards on freedom of speech.

    “In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court’s decision to block Telegram,” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    “Do you think this time they’ll appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova said in a post on her personal Telegram account.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • German police say a man has turned himself in over knife attack that killed 3

    German police say a man has turned himself in over knife attack that killed 3

    [ad_1]

    A 26-year-old man has turned himself into police, saying he was responsible for the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary, German authorities announced early Sunday.

    What You Need To Know

    • German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary
    • Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office Sunday that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack”
    • It said his “involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated”
    • On Saturday the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The claim couldn’t independently be verified

    Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack.”

    “This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement said.

    Federal prosecutors said they were investigating on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. The suspect was to make a first appearance before a judge later Sunday.

    The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.

    On Saturday, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

    Friday’s attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.

    People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

    The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.

    “Warum?” asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears. Why?

    Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.

    “Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.

    Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.

    The attack comes amid debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thueringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four more people injured.

    The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.

    Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Tropical Storm Hone will pass close to the Big Island late tonight

    Tropical Storm Hone will pass close to the Big Island late tonight

    [ad_1]

    Tropical Storm Hone formed on Thursday, August 22, in the Central Pacific Ocean. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Tropical Storm Hone formed on Thursday, Aug. 22


    • The current track takes it just south of the Big Island late Saturday into Sunday


    • Five to ten inches of rain is possible over the Big Island


    Tropical Storm Hone formed in the Central Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Aug. 22. It has winds of 65 mph and is located about 185 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Tropical storm force winds extend 125 miles outward of the center. 

    It is tracking west at 15 mph and could pass just south of the Big Island Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Turn on notifications in the Spectrum News app to keep up with watches and warnings.

    Impacts on the islands will depend on the track and intensity of the tropical activity near the islands. For now, it looks to bring windy and wet conditions, especially along the southern islands over the weekend. 

    Tropical Storm Warning

    * A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Hawaii County. Tropical storm conditions are expected in this area as early as Saturday afternoon and will continue overnight into Sunday.

    Will be strongest at the higher terrians, as they blow downslope, over headlands and through passes. 

    Rainfall 

    Some strengthening is likely as it approaches the islands. Rainfall totals will range from 5 to 10 inches, with locally higher amounts possible near the windward areas of the Big Island. 2 to 4 inches of rain is possible over windward sections of the smaller islands.  

    A Flood Watch is in effect for the Big Island through Monday evening. 

     

    Surf swells will reach the Islands over the weekend and are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip currents. 

    To see current conditions and the latest forecast in your area, click here.

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Weather Staff

    Source link

  • A bird flu outbreak is spreading among cows

    A bird flu outbreak is spreading among cows

    [ad_1]

    AMES, Iowa (AP) — At first glance, it looks like an unassuming farm. Cows are scattered across fenced-in fields. A milking barn sits in the distance with a tractor parked alongside.

    But the people who work there are not farmers, and other buildings look more like what you’d find at a modern university than in a cow pasture.

    What You Need To Know

    •  The National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa is working to develop a bird flu vaccine for cows

    •  The center became involved after bird flu was detected in cows last spring

    •  Scientists are working to understand the cause of the illness


    Welcome to the National Animal Disease Center, a government research facility in Iowa where 43 scientists work with pigs, cows and other animals, pushing to solve the bird flu outbreak currently spreading through U.S. animals — and develop ways to stop it.

    Particularly important is the testing of a cow vaccine designed to stop the continued spread of the virus — thereby, hopefully, reducing the risk that it will someday become a widespread disease in people.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture facility opened in 1961 in Ames, a college town about 45 minutes north of Des Moines. The center is located on a pastoral, 523-acre (212-hectare) site a couple of miles east of Ames’ low-slung downtown.

    It’s a quiet place with a rich history. Through the years, researchers there developed vaccines against various diseases that endanger pigs and cattle, including hog cholera and brucellosis. And work there during the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 — known at the time as “swine flu” — proved the virus was confined to the respiratory tract of pigs and that pork was safe to eat.

    The center has the unusual resources and experience to do that kind of work, said Richard Webby, a prominent flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

    “That’s not a capacity that many places in the U.S. have,” said Webby, who has been collaborating with the Ames facility on the cow vaccine work.

    The campus has 93 buildings, including a high-containment laboratory building whose exterior is reminiscent of a modern mega-church but inside features a series of compartmentalized corridors and rooms, some containing infected animals. That’s where scientists work with more dangerous germs, including the H5N1 bird flu. There’s also a building with three floors of offices that houses animal disease researchers as well as a testing center that is a “for animals” version of the CDC labs in Atlanta that identify rare (and sometimes scary) new human infections.

    About 660 people work at the campus — roughly a third of them assigned to the animal disease center, which has a $38 million annual budget. They were already busy with a wide range of projects but grew even busier this year after the H5N1 bird flu unexpectedly jumped into U.S. dairy cows.

    “It’s just amazing how people just dig down and make it work,” said Mark Ackermann, the center’s director.

    The virus was first identified in 1959 and grew into a widespread and highly lethal menace to migratory birds and domesticated poultry. Meanwhile, the virus evolved, and in the past few years has been detected in a growing number of animals ranging from dogs and cats to sea lions and polar bears.

    Despite the spread in different animals, scientists were still surprised this year when infections were suddenly detected in cows — specifically, in the udders and milk of dairy cows. It’s not unusual for bacteria to cause udder infections, but a flu virus?

    “Typically we think of influenza as being a respiratory disease,” said Kaitlyn Sarlo Davila, a researcher at the Ames facility.

    Much of the research on the disease has been conducted at a USDA poultry research center in Athens, Georgia, but the appearance of the virus in cows pulled the Ames center into the mix.

    Amy Baker, a researcher who has won awards for her research on flu in pigs, is now testing a vaccine for cows. Preliminary results are expected soon, she said.

    USDA spokesperson Shilo Weir called the work promising but early in development. There is not yet an approved bird flu vaccine being used at U.S. poultry farms, and Weir said that while poultry vaccines are being pursued, any such strategy would be challenging and would not be guaranteed to eliminate the virus.

    Baker and other researchers also have been working on studies in which they try to see how the virus spreads between cows. That work is going on in the high-containment building, where scientists and animal caretakers don specialized respirators and other protective equipment.

    The research exposed four yearling heifers to a virus-carrying mist and then squirted the virus into the teats and udders of two lactating cows. The first four cows got infected but had few symptoms. The second two got sicker — suffering diminished appetite, a drop in milk production and producing thick, yellowish milk.

    The conclusion that the virus mainly spread through exposure to milk containing high levels of the virus — which could then spread through shared milking equipment or other means — was consistent with what health investigators understood to be going on. But it was important to do the work because it has sometimes been difficult to get complete information from dairy farms, Webby said.

    “At best, we had some good hunches about how the virus was circulating, but we didn’t really know,” he added.

    USDA scientists are doing additional work, checking the blood of calves that drank raw milk for signs of infection.

    A study conducted by the Iowa center and several universities concluded that the virus was likely circulating for months before it was officially reported in Texas in March.

    The study also noted a new and rare combination of genes in the bird flu virus that spilled over into the cows, and researchers are sorting out whether that enabled it to spread to cows, or among cows, said Tavis Anderson, who helped lead the work.

    Either way, the researchers in Ames expect to be busy for years.

    “Do they (cows) have their own unique influenzas? Can it go from a cow back into wild birds? Can it go from a cow into a human? Cow into a pig?” Anderson added. “Understanding those dynamics, I think, is the outstanding research question — or one of them.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Bulked-up Big Ten and SEC set to dominate college football on and off the field

    Bulked-up Big Ten and SEC set to dominate college football on and off the field

    [ad_1]

    Faced with the prospect of dealing a potentially fatal blow to a conference it helped start more than 100 years ago, Oregon decided to leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten even though that meant taking half the annual revenue payout established members receive for several years.

    The Ducks really had no choice.

    In the new era of college football, there are three categories: Those who are in the Big Ten or the Southeastern Conference; those pondering how to get into the Big Ten or SEC; and those wondering if they are in danger of being left behind by the Big Ten and SEC.

    What You Need To Know

    • The days of the Power Five are over; now, it’s a Super Two

    • Three years of tumultuous and destructive conference realignment spawned the superconference era and there are none more powerful than the Big Ten and SEC — on the field and off

    • The 18-team Big Ten now stretches from coast to coast, with the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, and features four of the top 10 teams in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 college football poll, including defending national champion and No. 9 Michigan
    • The SEC welcomes former Big 12 powers Texas and Oklahoma, adding two schools with a combined 11 football national championships to a conference that has won 13 titles since 2006

    The days of the Power Five are over. Now, it’s a Super Two.

    Whether this is good for the overall health of major college athletics is uncertain. But for now, at a time when college sports has never been more volatile, the Big Ten and SEC are wealthy bastions of stability.

    “An incredibly strong conference, amazing TV deals, incredible partner, certainly exciting times to be part of the Big Ten,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said recently on the Navigating Sports Business podcast. “So lots of excitement from our student-athletes, our coaches. Our fans are thrilled.”

    Superconferences

    Three years of tumultuous and destructive conference realignment spawned the superconference era, and there are none more powerful than the Big Ten and SEC — on the field and off.

    The 18-team Big Ten now stretches from coast to coast, with the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, and features four of the top 10 teams in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 college football poll, including defending national champion and No. 9 Michigan.

    The SEC welcomes former Big 12 powers Texas and Oklahoma, adding two schools with a combined 11 football national championships to a conference that has won 13 titles since 2006. Four of the top six teams in the country right now are in the SEC, including No. 1 Georgia, one of nine SEC teams overall in the Top 25.

    The consolidation of more of college football’s biggest brands and traditional powers took the Pac-12 out of the picture and trimmed the Power Five to four.

    “I’m not sure that that’s what’s best for the health of college football nationally,” said former Fox Sports executive Bob Thompson. “Now, as a TV guy, if I’m going to pay increasing dollars, I’m going to want better match ups.”

    TV dollars

    As new mega media-rights deals kick in this season for the Big Ten and SEC, the revenue gap between the ACC and Big 12 will continue to grow. Those conferences have all but conceded that the competition — at least when it comes to comparing bank accounts — is for No. 3.

    On the field, the SEC is unmatched. At the bank, the Big Ten actually has a slight edge. According to tax filings released in May, the Big Ten reported revenue of $879.9 million compared with $852.6 million for the SEC.

    The ACC was a distant third even though it jumped from $617 million in 2021-22 to $707 million in 2022-23.

    The Pac-12, which saw 10 of its 12 members disperse to other conferences this summer, generated $603.9 million. The Big 12 was fifth at $510.7 million.

    The Super Two also threw their weight around in the latest negotiations for the newly expanded College Football Playoff. In the previous deal, the Power Five conferences took home about the same share of revenue from the CFP deal with ESPN.

    The new CFP contract with ESPN is worth $7.8 billion through the 2031 season and the Big Ten and SEC will split close to 60% of the revenue yearly — about $21 million per school while Big 12 and ACC schools take home $12 million to $13 million per year.

    SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti also created an advisory committee earlier this year where two conferences can work together — and without the ACC and Big 12 — on issues facing college sports. Only the Big Ten is truly in position to push back on the SEC — and vice versa — when it comes to shaping the future of college sports.

    “There’s going to be checks and balances between those two because they need each other,” former Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said.

    Unrest

    As the separation grows, it creates instability in the other conferences.

    Florida State and Clemson have sued the ACC with an eye toward an affordable exit. FSU officials have cited the prospect of trying to keep up with Big Ten and SEC competitors with conference revenues that put the school at a $40 million per year disadvantage.

    There appears to be peace and alignment in the Big 12, which adds Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah this year, but for how long?

    “If Utah had a chance to go to the Big Ten tomorrow they would take it,” Beebe said. “And probably every other school in conferences that are making half as much money because it’s become about money — and they’re going to have payments to make to players.”

    As part of a $2.8 billion settlement of antitrusts lawsuits facing the NCAA and power conferences, the leagues have agreed to a revenue-sharing plan that would allow schools to direct about $21 million per year to athletes. The plan could be implemented as soon as next year if the settlement is approved quickly enough by a judge.

    What’s next?

    Tensions that caused unrest in the Big 12 for years, that led to the Pac-12’s break up and are currently creating angst in the ACC seem likely to find their way to the the Big Ten and SEC.

    “Those that have all the gold make all the rules, right? So if I was a member of the Big Ten or SEC, I’d start looking over my shoulder and wondering: When is the day going to come when the top of the SEC is not going to want the bottom of the SEC?” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard told reporters in May.

    Thompson said he could see that day coming when the this round of TV contracts comes to an end in the early 2030s.

    Instead of more expansion, think Super League, where the upper crust of the SEC and Big Ten — Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, etc. — are lured away from those conferences into a new entity that delivers nothing but the most desirable made-for-TV matchups.

    “Unless you could somehow find a way to invent more days of the week, you don’t need any more Big Ten or SEC games. You need better Big Ten and SEC games,” Thompson said.

    For now, though, welcome to Year 1 of the Super Two.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Powell: ‘The time has come’ for the Fed to cut interest rates

    Powell: ‘The time has come’ for the Fed to cut interest rates

    [ad_1]

    Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in a highly anticipated speech on Friday that “the time has come” for the central bank to cut interest rates amid a cooling job market and dramatically lowered inflation.

    What You Need To Know

    • Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in a highly anticipated speech on Friday that “the time has come” for the central bank to cut interest rates

    • He did not give a timeline for when cuts would begin

    • Experts expect at least a quarter-point cut to be announced at the Fed’s mid-September meeting

    • Importantly, his comments signaled that he believes that the inflation that has ravaged American families over the last four years is largely under control and continuing to fall



    “The time has come for policy to adjust,” Powell said at the Federal Reserve’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

    “The labor market is no longer overheated, and conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic,” Powell said.

    He did not give a timeline for when cuts would begin. Experts expect at least a quarter-point cut to be announced at the Fed’s mid-September meeting.

    But importantly, his comments signaled that he believes that the inflation that has ravaged American families over the last four years is largely under control and continuing to fall.

    “My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2%,” he added. “

    The Fed chair also said that rate cuts should maintain the economy’s growth and sustain hiring, which slowed last month. Continued growth could boost Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, even as most Americans say they are dissatisfied with the Biden-Harris administration’s economic record, largely because average prices remain far above where they were before the pandemic.

    “We will do everything we can,” Powell said, “to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability.”

    By cutting rates, he said, “there is good reason to think that the economy will get back to 2% inflation while maintaining a strong labor market.”

    In what amounted to a claim of victory, Powell noted in his speech Friday that the Fed had succeeded in conquering high inflation without causing a recession or a sharp rise in the unemployment rate, which many economists had long predicted.

    The Fed chair attributed that outcome to the unraveling of the pandemic’s disruptions to supply chains and labor markets, and a reduction in job vacancies, which allowed wage growth to cool.

    After the government reported this month that hiring in July was much less than expected and that the jobless rate reached 4.3%, the highest in three years, stock prices plunged for two days on fears that the U.S. might fall into a recession. Some economists began speculating about a half-point Fed rate cut in September and perhaps another identical cut in November.

    But healthier economic reports last week, including another decline in inflation and a robust gain in retail sales, partly dispelled those concerns. Wall Street traders now expect the Fed to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point in both September and November and by a half-point in December. Mortgage rates have already started to decline in anticipation of rate reductions.

    A half-point Fed rate cut in September would become more likely if there were signs of a further slowdown in hiring, some officials have said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff

    Source link

  • SpaceX announces new date for Polaris Dawn launch

    SpaceX announces new date for Polaris Dawn launch

    [ad_1]

    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The Polaris Dawn mission is set to make history with a series of firsts, from a commercial spacewalk to achieving the highest orbit around Earth.

    What You Need To Know

    • This is the first of three Polaris Dawn missions from the Polaris Program
    • The Polaris Dawn mission is a joint one with SpaceX
    • The Falcon 9 will be leaving from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

    • Get more space coverage here  ▶

    • RELATED coverage: 

    Polaris Dawn’s Cmdr. Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Anna Menon, medical officer and mission specialist, and Sarah Gillis, who will also be a mission specialist, will climb aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule named Resilience and leave on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

    The mission was originally set for Monday, Aug. 26. However, SpaceX announced Wednesday that they are now targeting Tuesday, Aug. 27, for the Polaris Dawn launch. According to the company, the new date allows additional time for teams to complete preflight checkouts ahead of next week’s launch. 

    The launch window is from 3:38 a.m. ET until 7 a.m. ET, as the Falcon 9 will be leaving from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

    The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster, B1083, has an impressive record of launches.

    And so does the Dragon for this mission, which has done only two launches: Crew-1 and Inspiration4. Inspiration4 was the first all-citizen spaceflight, which Isaacman helped to spearhead and was a member of.

    Going around Earth

    For five days, these private citizens will orbit the Earth while conducting experiments and doing a series of firsts, such as a commercial spacewalk. Before Polaris Dawn, the only spacewalks done were by government space agencies such as NASA.

    The mission is in collaboration with SpaceX.

    The Polaris Program’s first Polaris Dawn mission will see the new first-generation SpaceX spacesuit, also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA).

    The suit offers greater flexibility, with a helmet that offers a heads-up display and camera. All four will be wearing a suit, especially since the Dragon needs to be depressurized before the big spacewalk done by Isaacman and Gillis, who will be tethered to the capsule.

    The mission will also see the furthest planned orbit, with the crew hoping to reach 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above the planet and breaking the record made by the Gemini 11 mission in 1966, which achieved an altitude of 853 miles (1,373 kilometers) above the Earth.

    Menon and Gillis will be the first women in history to reach a high-altitude orbit. They are also lead space operations engineers at SpaceX.

    Crewmembers (from left) Jared Isaacman, Anna Menon, Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Sarah Gillis said on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, that they will make a series of firsts during their Polaris Dawn mission, like making the first-commercial spacewalk and going on the furthest planned orbit. (Spectrum News/Anthony Leone)

    Each day will see something different, from day one where the crew will prepare for the spacewalk and attempt to break the high orbit record, which will see them pass through the Van Allen radiation belt.

    Day two will be more prep work for the spacewalk and a book reading to the kids at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

    The Polaris Dawn mission, like Inspiration4, will raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

    Day three will be a livestream of the spacewalk as Day 4 will be another mission objective: Testing the Starlink laser communications system.

    This Dragon capsule had a special device installed in it to be able to communicate with Starlink satellites.

    Day five will see the crew prepare for what comes on the sixth day, when the four will be splashing down off Florida’s coast.

    On Monday, Aug. 19, the crew of the Polaris Dawn mission gave a press conference about the mission and went into detail, such as the medical experiments that they will be conducting.

    In fact, in an interview with Spectrum News, Poteet shared what some of those experiments will be like.

    Isaacman also said that this is not the only mission. This one is a steppingstone to a Polaris Dawn II mission, which will see them in another Dragon. But it is the third mission that will see the crew in SpaceX’s famed Starship.

    “The third mission will be the first crewed flight of Starship,” he said. “(It has) twice the thrust of the Saturn IV and it could very well be the 737 for human space flight someday but it will certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the moon and then onto Mars and beyond.”

    [ad_2]

    Anthony Leone

    Source link

  • Children and adolescents experience long COVID differently than adults

    Children and adolescents experience long COVID differently than adults

    [ad_1]

    Children and adolescents with long COVID experience different effects than adults, according to new research from the National Institutes of Health released Thursday.

    School-age children from 6 to 11 years old who had prolonged symptoms after an initial COVID infection were more likely to experience headaches, while adolescents reported more feelings of daytime sleepiness.

    What You Need To Know

    • School-age children from 6 to 11 years old who had prolonged symptoms after an initial COVID infection were more likely to experience headaches

    • Adolescents with long COVID reported more feelings of daytime sleepiness, according to new research from the National Institutes of Health

    • Long COVID, or persistent health problems after an initial infection, manifest in multiple ways and can last for weeks, months or years

    • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Household Pulse Survey found that 6.7% of U.S. adults were experiencing long COVID as of March


    “Most research characterizing long COVID symptoms is focused on adults, which can lead to the misperception that long COVID in children is rare or that their symptoms are like those of adults,” NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Division Director David Goff said in a statement. “Because the symptoms can vary from child to child or present in different patterns, without a proper characterization of symptoms across the life span, it’s difficult to know how to optimize care for affected children and adolescents.”

    Long COVID, or persistent health problems after an initial infection, manifest in multiple ways and can last for weeks, months or years. Affecting people of all ages from children to older adults, as well as people from different races and ethnicities, sexes and genders and with different health statuses, it is a “complex, multisystem disorder that affects nearly every organ system, including the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, the reproductive system and the gastrointestinal system,” according to the World Health Organization.

    The NIH study found that children aged 6 to 11 with long COVID were most likely to experience headaches (57%), trouble with memory or focusing (44%), trouble sleeping (44%) and stomach pain (43%). In adolescents, the most common symptoms were daytime tiredness/sleepiness or low energy (80%); body, muscle or joint pain (60%); headaches (55%) and trouble with memory or focusing (47%). 

    For its study, the NIH surveyed 3,860 children and adolescents infected with COVID between March 2022 and December 2023 and compared them with 1,516 children and adolescents who did not have a history of COVID infection. All participants were surveyved about symptoms they experienced for at least a month 90 days after getting COVID.

    In adults, the most common types of long COVID are brain fog, fatigue, tachycadia and post-exertional malaise, according to research published in Nature Medicine earlier this month. That study found the risk of long COVID varies by variant. Omicron, first detected in November 2021, had less long COVID risk than the Delta and pre-Delta variants that were most prevalent globally between June and November 2021. 

    People who were vaccinated before becoming infected or who took antivirals while they were infected had a lower risk of long COVID, according to the Nature Medicine study. People who were reinfected with COVID, however, were more at risk. Cumulatively, two infections created a higher risk of long COVID than one infection and three infections created a higher risk than two infections. Reinfections can make existing long COVID symptoms worse.

    About 400 million people globally have had long COVID, the World Health Organization said earlier this month. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Household Pulse Survey found that 6.7% of U.S. adults were experiencing long COVID as of March.

    [ad_2]

    Susan Carpenter

    Source link

  • Takeaways: Tim Walz accepts the VP nomination as ‘freedom’ takes center stage

    Takeaways: Tim Walz accepts the VP nomination as ‘freedom’ takes center stage

    [ad_1]

    Across the many speakers on the third night of the Democratic convention — from a former president to the national youth poet laureate, from the former House Democratic leader to the current one, senators, representatives, governors and even Oprah Winfrey — “freedom” was a common theme.

    “Let us choose truth,” Winfrey said. “Let us choose honor. And let us choose joy. But more than anything else, let us choose freedom. Why? Because that’s the best of America.”

    And freedom came in many forms, whether it was speakers pledging to protect reproductive and LGBTQ rights, railing against book bans, or underlining the right to free and fair elections as they invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

    “It’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. No, it’s not,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a finalist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. “And it’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their bodies. And hear me on this: It sure as hell isn’t freedom to say you can go vote, but [former President Donald Trump] gets to pick the winner.”

    Or as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is openly gay, put it: “I’ve got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”

    Wednesday night even featured Republicans telling other Republicans that they had the freedom to cross party lines to vote their conscience.

    “To my fellow Republicans, you are not voting for a Democrat, you are voting for democracy,” said former Trump administration official Olivia Troye. “You aren’t betraying our party, you are standing up for our country.”

    “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat,” concurred former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who said he faced a slew of attacks for standing up to Trump’s efforts to subvert the state’s election results. “You’re a patriot.”

    While the climax of the penultimate night of the DNC was Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s vice presidential acceptance speech — and Harris’ running mate’s introduction to the American people — it was the message of “freedom” that stole the spotlight.

    “Freedom,” Walz said, was what let him start his family when he and his wife struggled with fertility.

    “When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love,” he said.

    And National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman said freedom is what unites all Americans: “We are one family regardless of religion, class or color. For what defines a patriot is not just a love of liberty but our love for one another. This is loud in our country’s call because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all.”

    Bill Clinton says Harris ticket a ‘breath of fresh air,’ takes jabs at Trump

    AP Photo

    Former President Bill Clinton, the  made his case for a Kamala Harris presidency while taking several digs at former President Donald Trump.

    “Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will and, yes, the sheer joy to get something done,” Clinton said. “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself, right? So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the ‘I’s.’”

    Among the jabs he took at Trump, Clinton asked: “Do you want to build a strong economy from the bottom up and the middle out? Or do you want to spend the next four years talking about crowd size?”

    Clinton also said he wondered what world leaders watching Trump on the campaign trail are “supposed to make to these endless tributes to the late, great Hannibal Lecter?”

    But Clinton also found a way to poke fun at himself. Noting that Harris worked at McDonald’s while in college, the former president said, “I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House as president because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald’s.”

    ‘Choose joy’: Oprah Winfrey, in surprise DNC appearance, endorses Harris, rallies Democrats

    AP Photo

    In a surprise appearance on Wednesday night, Oprah Winfrey made a vigorous appeal to independent and undecided voters to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris. She spoke of the “best of America” and using “common sense” to decide who to vote for, while taking a couple of implicit jabs at the GOP ticket. This was Winfrey’s first time speaking at a national political convention.

    “Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values and that is what is needed in this election now more than ever,” Winfrey said. “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”

    Winfrey noted that she herself is registered as an independent voter who is “proud to vote again and again and again,” taking a swipe, without naming him, at former President Donald Trump’s recent comment to Christians that they just need to vote in this one election. (Trump and his campaign sought to clarify that, despite the alarm from Democrats and democracy advocates, he was talking about evangelical Christians not voting en masse.)

    The former daytime television host and Chicago native also used her remarks to tell the story of Tessie Prevost Williams, who helped integrate public schools in New Orleans in 1960 and who died last month. 

    “And soon and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father – two idealistic, energetic immigrants – immigrants – how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States,” Winfrey said of Harris. 

    ‘The honor of my life’: Walz accepts vice presidential nomination

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, second from right, poses with his wife Gwen Walz, from right, son Gus Walz and daughter Hope Walz after speaking during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    “It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at the start of his speech.

    Walz shared his story of growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach.

    He said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district.

    “They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors,” Walz said.

    Walz listed his proudest accomplishments from his time as governor, including cutting taxes, passing paid family and medical leave, investing in law enforcement and affordable housing, lowering prescription drug costs, and guaranteeing free school breakfast and lunches for students. 

    “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.

    He also signed a bill into law protecting abortions and other reproductive health care. 

    “Because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walz said. “And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

    Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen.

    “If you’ve never experienced the hell that is in fertility, I guarantee you you know somebody who has, and I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone had rung, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” Walz said. “It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

    He then turned to his wife, daughter and son Gus. “You are my entire world and I love you.”

    “I’m letting you in on how we started a family, because this is a big part about what this election is about: freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations, free to pollute your air and water, and banks, free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health care decisions, and, yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

    Walz’s family joined him on stage after the speech, as Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ played.

    [ad_2]

    Joseph Konig

    Source link

  • Walz accepts vice presidential nomination on DNC’s penultimate night

    Walz accepts vice presidential nomination on DNC’s penultimate night

    [ad_1]

    On the penultimate night of the Democratic National Convention, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage in Chicago and said that, “it’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination on Wednesday night, calling it “the honor of my life”

    • Delving into his backstory, Walz talked about growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach; he said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district

    • Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen

    • Per C-SPAN, at about 15 minutes, Walz’s VP acceptance speech was the shortest in the last 30 years, but he closed with a pep talk as he sought to rally Democrats



    Delving into his backstory, Walz talked about growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach.

    He said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district.

    “They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors,” Walz said.

    “There I was, a 40-something high school teacher with kids, zero political experience, and no money, running in a deep red district,” he continued. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public schoolteacher. Never.”

    Walz listed his proudest accomplishments from his time as governor, including cutting taxes, passing paid family and medical leave, investing in law enforcement and affordable housing, lowering prescription drug costs, and guaranteeing free school breakfast and lunches for students. 

    “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.

    He also signed a bill into law protecting abortions and other reproductive health care. 

    “Because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walz said. “And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

    Walz talks of his family’s fertility struggles as he pitches Democrats’ ‘freedom’ agenda

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, second from right, poses with his wife Gwen Walz, from right, son Gus Walz and daughter Hope Walz after speaking during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen.

    “If you’ve never experienced the hell that is in fertility, I guarantee you you know somebody who has, and I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone had rung, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” Walz said. “It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

    He then turned to his wife, daughter and son Gus and told them “you are my entire world and I love you.”

    His children, looking on at their dad giving his speech, were in tears. Hope made a heart sign with her hands, while Gus stood up, sobbing, and shouted, “That’s my dad!”

    Gus Walz cries as Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

    “I’m letting you in on how we started a family, because this is a big part about what this election is about: freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations, free to pollute your air and water, and banks, free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health care decisions, and, yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

    Walz then spoke of his relationship with guns as a veteran and a hunter and how he evolved on the issue of gun control. He boasted of being “a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I got the trophies to prove it.”

    “That’s what this is all about, the responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we’re building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want, but not everyone has that same sense of responsibility,” Walz said. “Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.”

    Among those folks, Walz named Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, pinning them to the right-wing presidential transition plan Project 2025 crafted by Trump allies and former administration officials that they’ve attempted to distance themselves from.

    “Look, I coached high school football long enough to know and trust me on this. When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it,” Walz said. “Here’s the thing, it’s an agenda nobody asked for. It’s an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us. it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need.”

    “Is it weird? Absolutely, absolutely,” he continued. “But it’s also wrong and it’s dangerous.”

    ‘Coach’ Walz closes with a pep talk, urging Dems to fight for every inch on the campaign trail

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

    In his short time on the campaign trail, Walz hasn’t been known for long, drawn out orations – in fact, per C-SPAN, his speech was the shortest in the last 30 years, beating Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, Dan Quayle in 1992 and, ironically, Kamala Harris in 2020, who each spoke for 18.5 minutes – which he was happy to admit fairly quickly into his truncated acceptance speech.

    “You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this…but I have given a lot of pep talks, so let me finish with this, team,” Walz said, before breaking deep into football metaphors.

    “It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball; we’re driving down the field, and boy, do we have the right team,” Walz said, boasting about his quarterback. “Kamala Harris is tough, Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready. Our job, for everyone watching, is to get in the trenches, do the blocking and tackling, one inch at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time.”

    In other words, he said, this campaign won’t be won by long-bomb Hail Mary passes to a streaking receiver over the outstretched hands of a pack of defenders — it’ll be won in a scrap, bulldozing forward, just the way Walz (who, as he noted, ran a big lineman- and linebacker-heavy 4-4 defense as a high school football coach) likes it.

    “We got 76 days. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when we’re dead. We’re going to leave it on the field,” he said, building toward a raspy-voiced football coach’s crescendo. “That’s how we’ll keep moving forward, that’s how we’ll turn the page on Donald Trump, that’s how we’ll build a country where workers come first, health care and housing are human rights and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom…that’s how we’re going to fight. 

    “And as the next President of the United States always says, when we fight, we win!” Walz said, as Neil Young’s anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World” began to blare.

    [ad_2]

    Joseph Konig

    Source link

  • U.S. created 818,000 fewer jobs than initially reported

    U.S. created 818,000 fewer jobs than initially reported

    [ad_1]

    The U.S. economy made fewer job gains than initially reported between March 2023 and 2024. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual revision said 818,000 fewer jobs had been created over the previous year — a 0.5% decrease from what the Labor Department had initially reported.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual revision said 818,000 fewer jobs had been created between March 2023 and March 2024

    • The revision marks a 0.5% decrease

    • The downward revision comes as Vice President Kamala Harris makes job creation a central tenet of her campaign

    • On Monday, President Biden said his administration had created 16 million jobs


    The revision comes two days before Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to give a speech signaling the Fed’s inclination to reduce interest rates at its September meeting. The bank began raising rates from almost zero in March 2022 to 5.5% in March 2023, where they have remained at a 23-year high.

    Many economists expect the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its benchmark interest rate next month.

    The downward revision in jobs numbers comes as Vice President Kamala Harris makes job creation one of the central tenets of her presidential campaign. On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, President Biden said he and Harris had created 16 million new jobs since taking office.

    Former President Donald Trump mentioned the downwardly revised job numbers at his speech in Michigan yesterday.

    “Nobody’s ever seen 600,000 to 1 million jobs less,” he said. “That’s a terrible insult to our economy because we were seeing numbers that were OK, not great, but when adjusted, they’re a disaster.”

    And Trump’s surrogates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago agreed.

    “This is not a unique occurrence,” Brian Hughes, senior communications adviser to the Trump campaign, at a press conference on Wednesday, adding: “There have been frequent large-scale downard adjustments to the statistics touted by Harris and [President Joe] Biden as evidence of some sort of economic recovery or new job growth.”

    “It’s time to hold them accountable,” he added, accusing the administration of “inflating” the number and then “quietly” revising it downward.

    But Biden administration official Jared Bernstein, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, sought to emphasize that it’s unrelated to the nation’s jobs recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The *preliminary* (it will change before it’s official) payroll benchmark revision doesn’t change the fact that this has been and remains a strong jobs recovery, powering real wage gains, solid consumer spending, and record small biz creation,” he wrote on social media.

    “Important: neither the preliminary nor final revision directly affect estimates of job growth in recent months – important to keep in mind when assessing today’s labor market,” Bernstein added.

    [ad_2]

    Susan Carpenter

    Source link

  • Police arrested 13 protesters during first day of DNC

    Police arrested 13 protesters during first day of DNC

    [ad_1]

    Police arrested 13 people and added additional security fences at a Chicago park where protesters clashed with officers near the site of the Democratic National Convention ahead of a second day of planned protests Tuesday, including one outside the Israeli Consulate.

    What You Need To Know

    • Police say they arrested 13 people and have added additional security fences at a Chicago park where protesters clashed with police near the site of the Democratic National Convention

    • The 13 people arrested during Monday’s protest were detained on charges ranging from criminal trespass and resisting and obstructing an arrest to aggravated battery of police officers, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said
    • A second day of protests is planned for Tuesday, including one outside the Israeli Consulate



    The park, located a block from the convention arena, served as a destination point for a march of thousands calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Several dozen activists broke off from the main group, breached the fencing, and were pushed back by police.

    The 13 people arrested during Monday’s protest were detained on charges ranging from criminal trespass and resisting and obstructing an arrest to aggravated battery of police officers, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said at a news conference Tuesday.

    At least 10 of them were arrested in connection with the fence, he said.

    Snelling said he did not connect the “brief breach” of security fencing “within sight and sound of the United Center” with the entirety of the march. He said the vast majority of participants were peaceful, and he praised his officers’ conduct in the moment.

    “Our officers showed great restraint,” he said. “We’re not going to tolerate vandalism and violence in our city. … We’re going to continue to protect the city.”

    Snelling said some protesters used pepper spray against officers at the site where they broke through the fence. He said officers did not use any chemical sprays.

    The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said two of the people arrested were hospitalized. Snelling said they were taken to the hospital to ensure they would receive medication they were taking.

    Two people were also arrested on misdemeanor property damage and resisting arrest charges during a protest march Sunday night.

    Authorities said the inner security perimeter surrounding the United Center was not breached and there was no threat to those attending the convention.

    On Tuesday morning, an extra line of fencing was installed at the park, and the tall metal barriers were reinforced to prevent protesters from lifting and removing the panels in the future. No police officers or protesters were present at the park early Tuesday.

    Organizers had hoped at least 20,000 people would take part in Monday’s rally and march, but Snelling said about 3,500 people participated.

    Snelling said more protests are expected as the week goes on, and his department is prepared to de-escalate situations whenever possible.

    “Again, we’re up to the challenge,” he said. “The city is up to the challenge.”

    Closer to downtown Chicago, security was tighter than usual — including law enforcement officers with weapons slung across their bodies — outside the office building that houses the Israeli Consulate and a major city transportation hub. Metal barricades were set up, and an officer said they were preparing for a 7 p.m. demonstration.

    The consulate, located about two miles from the United Center, has been the site of numerous demonstrations since the war in Gaza began in October. It is in a building connected to the Ogilvie Transportation Center, a major commuter rail station.

    Most of the largest demonstrations have been organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC, which has focused on calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. But smaller protests have popped up around the city, including disruptions at the convention’s welcome party at Navy Pier.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Blinken visits Gaza mediators in pursuit of cease-fire deal

    Blinken visits Gaza mediators in pursuit of cease-fire deal

    [ad_1]

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead Tuesday with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead Tuesday with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza

    • Hamas in a new statement called the latest proposal presented to it a “reversal” of what it agreed to previously, and accused the U.S. of acquiescing to what it called “new conditions” from Israel

    • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, told families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza that a key goal is to “preserve our strategic security assets in the face of great pressures from home and abroad”

    • Blinken’s meetings in Egypt and upcoming ones in Qatar come a day after he met Netanyahu and said the prime minister had accepted a U.S. proposal to bridge gaps separating Israel and Hamas


    Hamas in a new statement called the latest proposal presented to it a “reversal” of what it agreed to previously, and accused the U.S. of acquiescing to what it called “new conditions” from Israel. There was no immediate U.S. response.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, told families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza that a key goal is to “preserve our strategic security assets in the face of great pressures from home and abroad.” The right-wing groups of families, who oppose a cease-fire deal, said Netanyahu told them Israel will not abandon two strategic corridors in Gaza whose control by Israel has been an obstacle in talks. Netanyahu’s office did not comment on their account.

    The meeting came as Israel’s military said it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that started the war, bringing fresh grief for many Israelis who have long pressed Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire that would bring remaining hostages home.

    Blinken’s meetings in Egypt and upcoming ones in Qatar come a day after he met Netanyahu and said the prime minister had accepted a U.S. proposal to bridge gaps separating Israel and Hamas. Blinken called on the militant group to do the same. But there still appear to be wide gaps between the two sides.

    Pressure to seal a cease-fire deal has been especially urgent after the recent targeted killings of militant leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon, both blamed on Israel, and vows of retaliation that have sparked fears of a wider regional war.

    Israel’s military said its forces recovered the six bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, without saying when or how they died. Hamas says some captives have been killed and wounded in Israeli airstrikes, though returning hostages have talked about difficult conditions including lack of food or medications.

    The recovery of the remains is also a blow to Hamas, which hopes to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting cease-fire.

    The military said it had identified the remains of Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35. Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtav had family members who were abducted but freed during a November cease-fire.

    Munder’s death was confirmed by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where he was among around 80 residents seized. It said he died after “months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authorities previously determined the other five were dead.

    Netanyahu said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.” There were no immediate reports of any casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.

    Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured on Oct. 7. Israeli authorities estimate around a third are dead.

    Hamas-led militants burst through Israel’s defenses on Oct. 7 and rampaged across the south, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Over 100 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel during last year’s cease-fire.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The air and ground offensive has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear the outbreak of diseases like polio.

    An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday killed at least 12 people at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City. The Palestinian Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run government, said around 700 people had been sheltering at the Mustafa Hafez school. Israel’s military said the strike targeted Hamas militants who had set up a command center inside the school.

    “We don’t know where to go … or where to shelter our children,” said Um Khalil Abu Agwa, a displaced woman at the site.

    An Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah hit people walking down the street and seven were killed, including a woman and two children, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies. More than 20 others were wounded.

    Another airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an AP journalist counted the bodies.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Pre-diabetes medication dramatically reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, study says

    Pre-diabetes medication dramatically reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, study says

    [ad_1]

    A new drug shows promising signs of reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Tirzepatide, better known by the brand names Zepbound and Mounjaro, reduced diabetes risk by 94% in adults who are overweight, obese or who have pre-diabetes, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company said Tuesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Tirzepatide, better known by the brand names Zepbound and Mounjaro, reduced diabetes risk by 94% in adults who are overweight, obese or who have pre-diabetes, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company said Tuesday

    • A three year-study of patients who took the injectable medication once a week found patients who took a 15-milligram dose also lost an average of 22.9% of their body weight throughout the treatment period

    • Obesity is a chronic disease that puts nearly 900 million adults worldwide at an increased risk of other complications such as type 2 diabetes

    • A type of GLP-1 Agonist, tirzepatide is one of a growing class of drugs that improve blood sugar control and help reduce weight


    A three year-study of patients who took the injectable medication once a week found patients who took a 15-milligram dose also lost an average of 22.9% of their body weight throughout the treatment period.

    “Obesity is a chronic disease that puts nearly 900 million adults worldwide at an increased risk of other complications such as type 2 diabetes,” Lilly Senior Vice President of Product Development Jeff Emmick said in a statement.

    Tirzepatide works by regulating appetites and caloric intake. It also stimulates the secretion of insulin. A type of GLP-1 Agonist, tirzepatide is one of a growing class of drugs that improve blood sugar control and help reduce weight.

    Drugs including Trulicity, Ozempic and Rybelsus used to treat type 2 diabetes may also lead to weight loss.

    For its study, Lilly evaluated 1,032 adults with prediabetes or who were obese or overweight for 176 weeks of treatment. 

    During a 17-week follow-up period after treatment, patients who stopped using tirzepatide began to regain weight and had a slight increase in their progression to type 2 diabetes, the study found.

    [ad_2]

    Susan Carpenter

    Source link

  • Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died

    Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died

    [ad_1]

    Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre that made household names of Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, has died. He was 88.

    What You Need To Know

    • NBC’s “Today” show said Donahue died Sunday after a long illness

    • Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Donahue was the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically during a full hour with a single guest

    • The format set “The Phil Donahue Show” apart from other interview shows of the 1960s and made it a trendsetter in daytime television

    • Donahue also co-directed the 2006 documentary “Body of War,” which was nominated for an Oscar

    NBC’s “Today” show said Donahue died Sunday after a long illness.

    Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Donahue was the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically during a full hour with a single guest.

    “Just one guest per show? No band?” he remembered being routinely asked in his 1979 memoir, “Donahue, my own story.”

    The format set “The Phil Donahue Show” apart from other interview shows of the 1960s and made it a trendsetter in daytime television, where it was particularly popular with female audiences.

    Later renamed “Donahue,” the program launched in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967. Donahue’s willingness to explore the hot-button social issues of the day emerged immediately, when he featured atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair as his first guest. He would later air shows on feminism, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, among hundreds of other topics.

    The show was syndicated in 1970 and ran on national television for the next 26 years, racking up 20 Emmy Awards for the show and for Donahue as host, as well as a Peabody for Donahue in 1980. It included radio-style call-ins, which Donahue greeted with his signature, “Is the caller there?”

    The show’s last episode aired in 1996 in New York, where Donahue was living with his wife, actress Marlo Thomas, at the time of his death. The two had been married since 1980. Donahue had five children, four sons and a daughter, from a previous marriage.

    Donahue returned briefly to television in 2002, hosting another “Donahue” show on MSNBC. The station canceled it after six months, citing low ratings.

    He was born Phillip John Donahue on Dec. 21, 1935, part of a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland. They moved to Centerville, Ohio, when Donahue was a child, where he lived across the street from Erma Bombeck, the future humorist and syndicated columnist.

    Donahue was in the first graduating class of St. Edward High School, a Catholic all-boys preparatory school in Lakewood, in 1953 and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in business administration in 1957. He later rebelled against, and left, the church, though he poignantly recalled in his book that “a little piece” of his faith would always be with him.

    After a series of early jobs in radio and TV, Donahue was invited to move an earlier radio talk show to Dayton’s WLWD television station in 1967. It moved in 1974 to Chicago, where it stayed for years, then ended its run in New York.

    The show featured discussions with spiritual leaders, doctors, homemakers, activists and entertainers or politicians who might be passing through town. He said striking upon the show’s winning formula was a happy accident.

    “It may have been a full three years before any of us began to understand that our program was something special,” Donahue wrote. “The show’s style had developed not by genius but by necessity. The familiar talk-show heads were not available to us in Dayton, Ohio. …The result was improvisation.”

    That lent a freedom to the show that persisted as it grew to No. 1 status in its class.

    With an amiable style and a head of salt-and-pepper hair, Donahue boxed with Muhammed Ali. He played football with Alice Cooper. His guests gave cooking lessons, taught break dancing and, more controversially, described “mansharing,” being a mistress, lesbian motherhood or — with the help of gathered video that got shows banned in certain cities — how natural childbirth, abortion or reverse vasectomies worked.

    A stop on “Donahue” became a must for important politicians, activists, athletes, business leaders and entertainers, from Hubert Humphrey to Ronald Reagan, Gloria Steinem to Anita Bryant, Lee Iacocca to Ray Kroc, John Wayne to Farrah Fawcett.

    Outside of his famous talk show, Donahue pursued several other projects.

    He partnered with Soviet journalist Vladimir Posner for a groundbreaking television discussion series during the Cold War in the 1980s. The U.S.-Soviet Bridge featured simultaneous broadcasts from the United States and the Soviet Union, where studio audiences could ask questions of one another. Donahue and Posner also co-hosted a weekly issues roundtable, Posner/Donahue, on CNBC in the 1990s.

    Donahue also co-directed the 2006 documentary “Body of War,” which was nominated for an Oscar.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    [ad_1]

    By

    Spectrum News Staff

    Washington, D.C.

    UPDATED 12:36 PM ET Aug. 18, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM ET Aug. 07, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM EDT Aug. 07, 2024

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff

    Source link

  • Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    [ad_1]

    By

    Spectrum News Staff

    Washington, D.C.

    UPDATED 12:36 PM ET Aug. 18, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM ET Aug. 07, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM EDT Aug. 07, 2024

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff

    Source link

  • George Santos expected to plead guilty in fraud case, sources say

    George Santos expected to plead guilty in fraud case, sources say

    [ad_1]

    Sources tell NY1 that former Republican Congressman George Santos is expected to plead guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors that will allow him to avoid his corruption trial next month.

    Santos, who represented parts of Queens and Long Island until he was expelled from Congress last year, is scheduled to appear in court in Suffolk County on Monday afternoon.

    Santos is facing 23 felony charges, accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from donors and spending some of the money on lavish personal expenses. Shortly after he was elected in 2022, The New York Times reported extensively how Santos colorfully fabricated much of his life story.

    While Santos had previously insisted that he would fight the charges in court, it appears that he has changed his mind.

    Neither Santos nor federal prosecutors would comment on Monday’s scheduled court appearance. On Santos’ social media account, the former lawmaker made no mention of his legal troubles, instead offering a negative movie review to the new film “Alien Romulus.”

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff

    Source link

  • U.S. consumer sentiment rises on Democratic optimism over Harris

    U.S. consumer sentiment rises on Democratic optimism over Harris

    [ad_1]

    A surge in optimism by Democrats over the prospects of Vice President Kamala Harris lifted U.S. consumer sentiment slightly this month.

    The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index edged up to 67.8 after coming in at 66.4 in July. Americans’ expectations for the future rose, while their assessment of current economic conditions sank slightly.

    What You Need To Know

    • A surge in optimism by Democrats over the prospects of Vice President Kamala Harris lifted U.S. consumer sentiment slightly this month

    • The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index edged up to 67.8 after coming in at 66.4 in July

    • Americans’ expectations for the future rose, while their assessment of current economic conditions sank slightly

    • Democrats’ sentiment rose, and Republicans’ fell


    The spirits of Democrats and political independents rose. Republicans’ sentiment fell. The survey found that 41% of consumers considered Harris the better candidate for the economy, versus the 38% who chose Republican nominee Donald Trump. Before President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and gave way to Harris, Trump held an advantage on the issue.

    Joanne Hsu, the university’s director of consumer surveys, said she expects the index to bounce with changing poll results as the election nears. Consumers on both sides of the partisan divide say their economic outlook “depends on who’s going to win the election,” she said.

    The Michigan index has rebounded after bottoming out at 50 in June 2022 when inflation hit a four-decade high. But it remains well below healthy levels. Before COVID-19 hit the economy in early 2020 — causing a recession followed by an unexpectedly strong recovery that unleashed inflation — the Michigan index regularly registered in the 90s and occasionally crossed 100.

    “Consumers are still pretty glum overall by historical standards, but sentiment is on an improving trend,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.

    Economists watch measures of Americans’ spirits to gauge whether they’re in the mood to shop, important because their spending accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity.

    Since inflation struck more than three years ago, Americans have been feeling grumpy. As the November presidential election approaches, many blamed President Biden for higher prices.

    Despite their sour mood, American consumers have kept spending anyway. Largely because of that, the economy grew at a healthy 2.8% annual pace from April through June. Their spending has continued into the current quarter: The Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales climbed 1% from June to July, biggest jump since January 2023 on strong sales at electronics shops, supermarkets and auto dealerships.

    The Federal Reserve responded to inflation’s resurgence by raising its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, lifting it to a 23-year high. Inflation has cooled markedly since peaking at 9.1% in June 2022. By last month, it was down to 2.9%, edging closer to the Fed’s 2% target.

    The central bank is now widely expected to begin cutting rates at its next meeting in September.

    The Michigan survey shows that consumers’ expectations for future inflation have come down — though Americans remain frustrated that prices are still nearly 20% higher than they were when inflation picked up in early 2021. For the second straight month, consumers said in August that they expect prices to be 2.9% higher in one year. In mid-2022, as inflation roared, they expected prices to climb 5.3% over the next 12 months.

    Their expectations are important because they can drive behavior. If you think something is going to be a lot more expensive in the future, you are more likely to buy it now, and that spending can drive prices higher. “If inflation expectations are high, that can be a self-fulfilling prophesy,” Hsu said. ”Policymakers do not want to see that.” So the Fed’s inflation fighters welcome signs that consumers foresee more modest price increases going forward.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    Decision 2024 updates: Latest election news

    [ad_1]

    By

    Spectrum News Staff

    Washington, D.C.

    UPDATED 11:38 AM ET Aug. 16, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM ET Aug. 07, 2024
    PUBLISHED 12:48 PM EDT Aug. 07, 2024

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff

    Source link