For the last 18 months, the original COVID-19 vaccines — first as a two-dose series, then as boosters — have done an extraordinary job shielding us from illness, hospitalization and death. The question before them was simple: Ahead of an expected winter surge, should vaccine manufacturers tweak their forthcoming booster shots to target Omicron — the ultra-infectious variant that has spent the last seven months surging throughout the world in one form or another — or should they stick with the tried-and-true 2020 recipe? The panel voted 19-2 on Tuesday in favor of Omicron boosters.
An American Airlines passenger spent nearly four hours trying to rebook his seats over the phone. An American Airlines passenger who spent nearly four hours on hold with the airline's customer-service center grew so frustrated he drove 45 minutes to the airport to rebook his seats at the ticket counter.
A small ski area in Vermont has announced that it's retiring its name, Suicide Six, this summer amid growing concerns about the insensitive nature of the historical name. The resort said on its website on Tuesday that it shares those concerns and “embraces the increasing awareness surrounding mental health. The feelings that the word 'suicide' evokes can have a significant impact on many in our community,” the resort statement said.
Mary Mara, who was found dead in New York's St. Lawrence River on Sunday, died of asphyxiation, or suffocation, due to drowning, according to autopsy findings. The ER and Ray Donovan actress's cause of death was announced Wednesday by police, bringing an end to online rumors around the fatal accident. "The Jefferson County Medical Examiner's Office performed a post-mortem examination and determined that Mary Mara's manner of death was an accident, due to asphyxiation, and water drowning," says an updated statement provided by a New York State Police Troop D spokesperson.
A Chinese father who reportedly tutored his son daily for a year went viral for bursting into tears after his son scored six out of 100 points on a math exam. The child's parents from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, received his test score on June 23. Upon learning that their son had only received six points for his final math test, the father burst into tears, as seen in a video posted to Weibo by Qilu Evening News.
The Forest Park Police Department is warning residents of a local increase in car thefts of Kia and Hyundai brand vehicles, similar to instances reported in other cities across the country. The thefts are mainly of Kia cars newer than 2011 and Hyundai cars newer than 2015. Forest Park police say there were six reported thefts of these vehicle brands since June 21 from large apartment complexes at night.
KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces have withdrawn from Ukraine's Snake Island, a strategic outpost in the Black Sea, Russia's defence ministry and Ukraine's president's office said on Thursday. Snake Island, which Russia occupied on the first day of its invasion, achieved fame when Ukrainian border guards stationed there rejected a Russian warship's demand for their surrender.
In a moment captured on video, Biden appeared to shake Yoon's hands without making eye contact. Now, "no look handshake" is trending on Twitter in South Korea as users scrutinize the gesture. An awkward handshake between US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, at the NATO summit in Madrid lit up social media on Wednesday.
Former first lady Melania Trump was given a chance to call for peace on Jan. 6, 2021 as her husband's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol and attempted to block the certification of the 2020 election. Grisham, who was also a former White House press secretary and communications director, resigned later that day, but made no mention of the assault on the Capitol. Like others who served the Trumps, Grisham saved her criticism for a tell-all book.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would respond in kind if NATO deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they join the U.S.-led military alliance. "But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created."
The Supreme Court Wednesday authorized Oklahoma to handle certain crimes on Native American land. Justice Neil Gorsuch blasted the ruling, saying it "failed" to "honor this Nation's promises." A 2020 ruling said only tribal and federal authorities could prosecute crimes in the jurisdiction.
Elon Musk said COVID-19 "tricked people into thinking that you don't actually need to work hard." Working from home didn't make workers less productive, three economists told Insider. The only constraint on productivity was when workers had children at home they needed to look after.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, but his forces are so degraded by combat that they likely can only achieve incremental gains in the near term, the top U.S. intelligence officer said Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, outlining the current U.S. intelligence assessment of the more than four-month war, said that the consensus of U.S. spy agencies is that it will grind on "for an extended period of time." "In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia's attitude toward the West is hardening," Haines told a Commerce Department conference.
French president Emmanuel Macron was caught revealing some bad news to President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit Monday. Macron told Biden the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, informed him that OPEC's top oil exporters were already at their production maximum. “I had a call with MbZ,” Macron told Biden, referring to Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Reuters reported.
"We have reports that a Russian amphibious assault ship of project 1176 Akula of the Black Sea Fleet D-106 blew up near Mariupol,” he said. We are waiting for confirmation of the 'gesture of goodwill'," he added. Earlier it emerged that following powerful strikes by Ukrainian forces, the Russian occupiers of Ukraine's Snake Island in the Black Sea had hastily evacuated the remnants of the garrison on two speedboats.
A British documentary filmmaker who recently testified behind closed doors to the House Jan. 6 select committee said that former President Donald Trump is living in “cloud cuckoo land,” and is incapable of ever acknowledging that his claims about voter fraud are “delusional.” Holder was granted exclusive access to Trump and his family in the months before and after the 2020 election, giving him the opportunity to compile over 100 hours of footage of the former president, his two eldest sons and eldest daughter talking in interviews and among themselves. When the Jan. 6 select committee learned of the project — which will be aired by Discovery+ in the coming months — they subpoenaed him hoping to find footage of the Trumps speaking candidly about events that are the subject of the investigation.
STORY: The ground shook and people fell as debris fell from the air, and a tree shed its leaves while one person threw themselves into the park's lake. A day after the attack in which at least 18 people were killed, the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine declared a day of mourning and firefighters cleared away rubble. Russia said the incident was caused by a strike on a legitimate military target.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) asked a question on Twitter on Wednesday, but he probably didn't like the answers he received. Jackson, a conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump acolyte who as White House physician once claimed the then-president could live to 200, wrote:
The news story that reportedly caused former President Donald Trump to throw his lunch against a White House wall came from an exclusive interview that former Attorney General William Barr had arranged with The Associated Press. The scoop, which was published on Dec. 1, 2020, quoted Barr as saying that the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. It was a bombshell that contradicted the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of the election.
DENYS KARLOVSKYI – TUESDAY, 28 JUNE 2022, 18:01 Belarusian journalist Anton Motolko has published the intercepted conversations between Russian military pilots and dispatchers on 25 June, when missiles were launched from the airspace of Belarus. Source: Motolko Help Telegram channel Details: The Russian pilots are discussing how they are launching missiles from their planes on the territory of Ukraine. They are also coordinating the missile launches and their course within the airspace of Belarus, first in the direction of the Ukrainian border, and then back to their bases at airfields in Russia.
Heathrow airport asked airlines to cancel flights on Thursday over concerns safety concerns. The hub said it is expecting higher passenger numbers than it has capacity to serve. Cancellations at other airports have contributed to the problem, a spokesperson told Insider.
At a press conference in Madrid after the NATO summit, President Biden said he supported changing filibuster rules in the Senate to codify into law the right to an abortion and the right to privacy.
In a recent interview, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk said about the UAW “They have so much power over the Whitehouse, they can exclude Tesla from an EV (Electric Vehicle) summit.” The referenced EV summit was held in August of 2021, where President Joe Biden discussed the promising future of Electric Vehicles. While President Biden has now referenced Tesla when discussing the future of EVs, that wasn't always the case.
Stephen Colbert broke down the explosive revelations from Tuesday's congressional hearings on former President Donald Trump's actions on Jan. 6, 2021. The committee played footage of Michael Flynn, the former Army general who resigned in disgrace after just 24 days as Trump's national security advisor, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in response to basic questions. Flynn ― a QAnon conspiracy theorist ― was asked if he thought the violence on Jan. 6 was justified and if he believed in the peaceful transition of power.
SEOUL (Reuters) -The nosedive in cryptocurrency markets has wiped out millions of dollars in funds stolen by North Korean hackers, four digital investigators say, threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-stricken country and its weapons programmes. North Korea has poured resources into stealing cryptocurrencies in recent years, making it a potent hacking threat and leading to one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record in March, in which almost $615 million was stolen, according to the U.S. Treasury. The sudden plunge in crypto values, which started in May amid a broader economic slowdown, complicates Pyongyang's ability to cash in on that and other heists, and may affect how it plans to fund its weapons programmes, two South Korean government sources said.
“Left unchecked, if artificial intelligence reaches cognition … it will be fueled by some of the most inhumane impulses of humanity.”
“Now is the time to stop and think — before our technology outstrips us once again.”
“I don't want to talk about sentient robots, because at all ends of the spectrum there are humans harming other humans.”
“Minds can take different forms … We should avoid reducing questions about AIs to ‘Can AIs think and feel like us?’”
“To identify sentience, or consciousness, or even intelligence, we’re going to have to work out what they are.”