Over the weekend, seemingly troubling news emerged from Israel, with a study suggesting that the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech was less effective against B.1.351, a variant first encountered in South Africa. Meanwhile, two of the New York Post's most-read stories as of Monday morning were about a 31-year-old woman in New York City who tested positive for the coronavirus three weeks after receiving the vaccine and a 52-year-old man who ended up in the hospital with COVID-19, despite having also been vaccinated. Together, such reports in the mainstream media of “breakthrough” infections of the vaccinated can foster the inaccurate narrative that COVID-19 vaccines are not effective, especially against new strains of the coronavirus, some of which had not yet emerged when those vaccines were being developed.
Thirty Mexican marines have been arrested over the disappearance of an unspecified number of people in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas in 2014, officials say. Prosecutors say the victims went missing when the marines deployed in the border city of Nuevo Loredo. About 85,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched a war on drugs traffickers.
Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists and among 47 people charged under a national security law, was sentenced to four months in jail on Tuesday for unauthorized assembly and violating an anti-mask law. Wong, 24, had pleaded guilty to both charges, including taking part in and using a facial covering at an unauthorized assembly in October 2019 during the height of anti-government protests, the court heard. The sentence will extend a 13-and-a-half-month sentence he is already serving for organising an illegal assembly.
Overnight clashes between Islamists and police in Pakistan left three demonstrators and a police officer dead, officials said Tuesday, hours after authorities arrested the head of an Islamist political party. The violence came as police clashed Monday and into Tuesday with supporters of Saad Rizvi, head of the Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan party, who was arrested Monday in the eastern city of Lahore. Senior police officer Ghulam Mohammad Dogar said police were still trying to bring the situation in Lahore under control Tuesday.
Dr Seuss books have made headlines lately, but not for this reason. According to a police report from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, deputies went to a Largo home on a call of suspected child abuse. When they arrived around 9 p.m.
Iran said Tuesday it would dramatically increase its uranium enrichment levels in response to an attack on its Natanz nuclear facility, a further breach of its nuclear deal with world powers that ongoing talks are struggling to salvage. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading negotiations in Vienna on saving the nuclear deal, said Tehran would begin enriching uranium to 60 per cent purity on Wednesday, according to state TV, up from the 20 per cent it is currently producing. Tehran has informed the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, which declined to comment.
Italy reported 476 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 358 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 13,447 from 9,789. Italy has registered 115,088 deaths linked to COVID-19 sinceits outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highesttoll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in theworld. There were 242 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 167 on Monday.
The Philippine government summoned the Chinese ambassador to press its demand for Chinese vessels to immediately leave a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea and said their presence was stoking tensions, officials said Tuesday. The escalating feud between Manila and Beijing started after more than 200 Chinese vessels suspected by Philippine authorities to be operated by militias were spotted early last month at Whitsun Reef. The Philippine government demanded the vessels leave then deployed coast guard and patrol vessels to the area but China said it owns the reef and the Chinese vessels were sheltering from rough seas.
These fantastical houses range from a 64,000-acre Texas ranch to an oceanside estate in the south of France Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
During a press conference on Monday, Brooklyn Center, Minn. released bodycam video of the police shooting of Daunte Wright. Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believes the officer who shot Wright intended to use her Taser, but mistakenly grabbed her firearm.
While nothing is definitive, "all indications are pointing to the fact" that Israel was behind a cyberattack that knocked out power at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility over the weekend, retired U.S. Navy Adm. William McRaven said Monday, and he finds the allegations "a little disturbing" given that the U.S. and other countries are currently trying to renegotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "Frankly, I'm not exactly sure what it accomplishes," McRaven told CNN's Jake Tapper. "It's a little bit of a shot across the bow, but Natanz will only be down for maybe a week or so."
Pope Francis asked a bishop in the U.S. state of Minnesota to resign after he was investigated by the Vatican for allegedly interfering with past investigations into clergy sexual abuse, officials said Tuesday. The Vatican said Francis accepted the resignation of Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner on Tuesday and named a temporary replacement to run the diocese. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston said in a statement that the pontiff asked Hoeppner to resign following the Vatican probe, which it said arose from reports that the bishop "had at times failed to observe applicable norms when presented with allegations of sexual abuse involving clergy."
Alex Salmond has been accused of pandering to extreme Scottish nationalists after his new party released a campaign video which spoke of breaking "the spine of English superiority” and he claimed the support of a King who died nearly seven centuries ago. The former First Minister's Alba Party on Monday broadcast a supposed endorsement from Robert the Bruce, who successfully led Scotland during the first War of Independence against England in the fourteenth century. In the clip, 'The Bruce', who actually died in 1329, predicts that Mr Salmond's new rival party to the SNP would “unite the clans”.
TikTok star Justine Paradise has accused YouTuber Jake Paul of sexually assaulting her at his home in Los Angeles in 2019. Paradise alleges Paul grabbed her face and forced her to perform oral sex on him, and touched her inappropriately without consent. The BBC has contacted representatives for Jake Paul for comment but has not yet had a response.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -The rate of new COVID-19 infections in Sweden has jumped to the second-highest in Europe after land-locked San Marino, data showed on Tuesday, as the Scandinavian country which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic faced a third wave of cases. Sweden had 625 daily new cases per million inhabitants in a rolling seven-day average, statistics from OurWorldInData showed on Tuesday, second only to San Marino, a small nation that is surrounded by Italy.
Former House Speaker John Boehner revealed that in the 2020 election, he voted for former President Donald Trump, whom he would later blast for inciting a "bloody insurrection." Boehner has recently been promoting his new memoir On the House, and he told Time in an interview published Tuesday that he backed the former president for a second term last year, citing his Supreme Court picks and their agreement on policy issues. "I voted for Donald Trump," Boehner said.
The United States and NATO on Tuesday expressed strong support for Ukraine and warned Russia against pressing ahead with a major troop buildup along the former Soviet republic's eastern border. In separate meetings with Ukraine's foreign minister, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg expressed serious concern about Russia deploying the largest concentration of troops near the Ukraine border since 2014. Blinken accused Russia of taking “very provocative” actions that have alarmed Ukraine and the West.
A woman and her boyfriend were involved an argument in south Fort Worth early Tuesday when she stabbed him in the neck with a knife, police said. The officers determined the man and woman had gotten into an argument before the woman stabbed the man, police said. A police spokesman didn't immediately respond to a question about what charges the woman's facing, who made the 911 call or if police have any reason to believe the stabbing was accidental.
European rollout of J&J vaccination delayed after series of clotting cases All over-50s offered vaccine in 'hugely significant milestone' Scotland to lift Covid travel restrictions ahead of schedule from Friday Brussels faces soaring costs for Pfizer's Covid vaccine Fauci says US may never use Oxford vaccine in fresh blow for global confidence Roughly 1.3 million vulnerable people have not yet taken up the offer of a Covid-19 vaccine, new analysis suggests, amid concerns that the virus could circulate in unprotected communities as restrictions lift. According to NHS England, 19 out of 20 of those most at risk from the virus have now received their first dose of a vaccine.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Nearly half of all oil pipelines from the Permian basin, the biggest U.S. oilfield, are expected to be empty by the end of the year, analysts and executives said. Pipeline companies went on a construction spree throughout 2018 and 2019 to handle blistering growth in U.S. crude production to a record 13 million barrels per day (bpd). Major pipeline companies are exploring ways to ship other products in those lines and considering selling stakes in operations to raise cash.
The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. The gathering was slated for Saturday but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Stephens listed three reasons for the denial including safety concerns, specifically the pandemic and racial tensions.
Taiwan has said a record number of Chinese military jets flew into its air defence zone on Monday. The defence ministry said 25 aircraft including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers entered its so-called air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday. The incursion is the largest in a year and comes as the US warns against an "increasingly aggressive China".
The garden is overgrown, the walls are collapsing and the stonework is crumbling, but a dilapidated townhouse in Malta where a young Prince Philip once lived with the then Princess Elizabeth is undergoing a multi-million pound restoration. Villa Guardamangia, on the outskirts of the Maltese capital Valletta, is to be returned to how it looked when it was home to the royal couple in what they said was one of the happiest periods of their lives. The restoration, expected to take at least five years, will enable it to be opened as a museum and underscores the connection between the royal family and Malta, which gained independence in 1964.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office on Monday identified the U.S. Navy sailor who shot and killed himself at a luxury resort after a standoff with police over the weekend.
You don't have to commit to full-on maximalism to make a statement Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
“There’s no ‘both sides of the debate’ when it comes to active voter suppression.”
“Companies that do this ooze contempt for their own customers and employees who are not in the leftmost quarter of opinion.”
“The truth is that Fortune 500 companies were never taking moral stances from the goodness of their corporate hearts.”
“The truth is, the companies hold the cards…If companies stick to their guns, Georgia is likely to back down as well.”
“When a company folds to the unfounded outrage of a few misinformed nuts, they are forever at the mob’s beck-and-call.”