New businesses largely left out of pandemic aid programs
Congress passed two pandemic relief packages in 2020 in an effort to keep small businesses afloat, but newly-opened shops say they have been left out of the legislation.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is expected to ask President Joe Biden to consider sharing part of the U.S. coronavirus vaccine supply with its poorer southern neighbor when the two leaders hold a virtual summit on Monday, U.S. and Mexican officials said. Biden is open to discussing the matter as part of a broader regional effort to cooperate in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but will maintain as his “number one priority” the need to first vaccinate as many Americans as possible, a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Lopez Obrador has been one of the most vocal leaders in the developing world pressing the richest countries to improve poorer nations’ access to the vaccines.
Lindell equates getting coronavirus vaccine to receiving ‘mark of the beast’ pledging allegiance to the devil
More than 850 cows that have spent months on a ship in the Mediterranean are no longer fit for transport and should be killed, Spain's Agriculure Ministry said on Saturday, confirming an earlier Reuters report. The cows were kept in what an animal rights activist called "hellish" conditions on the Karim Allah, which docked in the southeastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after struggling to find a buyer for the cattle during the past two months. The animals were rejected by several countries over fears they had bovine bluetongue virus.
The UN said it had "credible information" that this weekend's crackdown on protesters in Myanmar left at least 18 dead and 30 wounded.
The ambassador made an emotional appeal urging countries to help remove the military from power.
Some on-screen love interest age gaps are surprising, and other times, actors are almost the same age as their on-screen children.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday signed into law a bill that gives indemnity to vaccine makers if their COVID-19 shots cause adverse side-effects, days before the country starts its lagging inoculation programme. Despite having one of the highest number of coronavirus infections in Asia, the Philippines will be the last Southeast Asian nation to receive its initial set of vaccines. It covers the creation of a 500 million pesos ($10.26 million) indemnity fund to cover compensation for potential serious adverse effects stemming from the doses' emergency use.
Security forces battling a decades-long insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir are alarmed by the recent arrival in the disputed region of small, magnetic bombs that have wreaked havoc in Afghanistan. "Sticky bombs", which can be attached to vehicles and detonated remotely, have been seized during raids in recent months in the federally administered region of Jammu and Kashmir, three senior security officials told Reuters. "These are small IEDs and quite powerful," said Kashmir Valley police chief Vijay Kumar, referring to improvised explosive devices.
Jackson became Nasa’s first Black female engineer in 1958
Nigeria's president warns the kidnappers that his government will not give in to blackmail.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) didn't exactly pull punches in an interview with Politico, going after congressional Republicans, Democrats, former President Donald Trump, and the Biden administration all in one go. Sasse, who is facing imminent censure from the Nebraska GOP for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, stands by that vote and says he's not bothered by the action his home state's Republican Party is taking against him, though he did say he thinks it's not "healthy." His comments to Politico seemed to back up that confidence. At one point, when asked about Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Sasse simply said "that guy is not an adult," and described Congress, generally, as "a bunch of yokels screaming." Sasse's candor is gutsy, but it's worth noting he's generally well-respected by his Senate colleagues and won re-election handily last year, so he's ensconced in the upper chamber until 2026, and likely doesn't need to look over his shoulder as of now. While he's been in the spotlight for his intra-party criticism of late, Sasse did have words for Democrats, as well, per Politico. He said the Biden administration is "cowering" to the opinions of progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and called the education spending plan in President Biden's COVID-19 relief package "disastrous." Read more at Politico. More stories from theweek.comTrump is back. Did anyone miss him?Trump still has the Republican Party by the throatMost awkward awards show ever?
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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's grip on power appeared to be slipping on Friday, a day after the army called on him to quit. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the capital Yerevan to demand his downfall, and a leading opposition figure called on the army to rebel against him. Pashinyan told his supporters on Thursday he was firing Onik Gasparyan, the chief of the army's general staff.
Some 317 girls remain missing in Zamfara state, but 42 people abducted in Niger state are freed.
U.S. regulators authorized Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use Saturday – one day after a panel of outside experts backed the one-shot immunization.Now that it has the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration, J&J plans to ship three to four million doses next week. On Thursday, President Joe Biden, pledged to quickly distribute J&J’s vaccine pending its approval. "We have a plan to roll it out as quickly as Johnson & Johnson can make it.” More than 50 million vaccine shots have been administered nationwide – a point Biden highlighted as the halfway point of his goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days after taking office. Distribution of J&J’s vaccine is a lot easier than those already available in the U.S. made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Its vaccine can be stored in normal refrigerator temperatures instead of ultra-cold storage. And it’s the only one that requires just a single shot. A trial found that J&J’s vaccine was 66% effective at preventing moderate-to-severe cases of COVID-19. And it was 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations 28 days after vaccination. The company is developing a second-generation vaccine that would target the more transmissible South African variant. It plans to start Phase 1 trials by this summer.
Biden nominated three people to open positions on the agency's governing board, who, if confirmed by the Senate, would create a Democratic advantage.
Iran on Saturday condemned U.S. air strikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria, and denied responsibility for rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq that prompted Friday's strikes. Washington said its strikes on positions of the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group along the Iraq border were in response to the rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
Outspoken GOP congressman complains ‘the left and the media’ were less concerned about ‘caravans going through Mexico’ than Texas senator visiting
Australia received 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine on Sunday, more than doubling the amount of all vaccines shipped to the country so far and allowing the government to ramp up its COVID-19 immunisation drive. Mass vaccinations for Australia's 25 million people began on Monday after the arrival of a first batch of more than 142,000 doses of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE vaccine. "We will now be able to scale up the vaccination rollout to our priority groups, including our most vulnerable Australians and to our frontline border and health workers," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.
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