Vice President Kamala Harris visits Jacksonville on 'Help is Here' tour

Vice President Kamala Harris was in Jacksonville Monday to visit a vaccine site and tout this month's passage of the American Rescue Plan.

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  • The White House may not pay for all of Biden's infrastructure plan with a tax increase

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  • Disgraced MO Rep. Rick Roeber calls it quits. Never forget what happened to his kids

    He was never held accountable or exonerated for the abuse of his now-adult children.

  • Biden issues warning to Putin, proposes summit as Russian troops amass along the Ukrainian border

    Biden proposed a summit in a third country in the near future as relations between Washington and Moscow hit their lowest point in decades.

  • Companies that have containers on the Ever Given could have to help pay the up to $1 billion Egyptian authorities are demanding before the ship leaves the Suez Canal

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  • India's Maharashtra shuts most manufacturing, restricts e-commerce to fight COVID-19

    MUMBAI (Reuters) -India's richest state Maharashtra will impose stringent curbs on industry and e-commerce for 15 days to slow rising coronavirus infections, its chief minister said on Tuesday, a move that is set to cripple manufacturing and other businesses in the region. Maharashtra - home to India's financial capital Mumbai - has been the country's worst hit state due to the coronavirus, accounting for about a quarter of India's 13.5 million cases. On Tuesday, Maharashtra reported 60,212 new COVID-19 infections.

  • A venomous snake — with no known antivenom — bites San Diego Zoo employee

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  • U.S. to Temporarily Halt Use of Johnson & Johnson Vaccines over Rare Clotting Issue

    Federal agencies will call to temporarily suspend the use of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines, after six recipients of the vaccine developed a blood clotting disorder. Almost seven million Americans have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is administered in a single dose. Six recipients, all of them women between ages 18 and 48, developed an extremely rare clotting disorder, known as cerebral venous thrombosis. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will temporarily halt distribution of the vaccine at federal vaccination sites while an investigation is conducted into a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the clotting disorder, the New York Times reported. The agencies will also urge states to temporarily halt distribution of the vaccine and will debate whether to continue FDA emergency authorization. “We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” the CDC and FDA said in a statement. “This is important, in part, to ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events and can plan for proper recognition and management due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot.” European regulators discovered a similar issue with the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Out of 34 million people to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, 222 developed blood clots due to low platelet counts as a rare side effect. However, in that case regulators said that the AstraZeneca vaccine should continue to be administered because the benefits outweighed the very low risk of side effects. Johnson & Johnson was dealt a separate blow in late March after a mistake by factory workers in Baltimore ruined 15 million doses. None of those doses were administered to Americans, and current Johnson & Johnson vaccines are shipped to the U.S. from the company’s factories in the Netherlands. The Baltimore plant was set to take over production of the vaccine pending regulatory approval from the FDA. Most of the vaccines used in the U.S. were produced by Pfizer and Moderna.

  • Russia says troop buildup near Ukraine is a response to NATO

    Russia's defense minister said Tuesday that the country's massive military buildup in the west was part of readiness drills amid what he described as threats from NATO. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the maneuvers in western Russia that have worried neighboring Ukraine and brought warnings from NATO would last for another two weeks. Speaking at a meeting with the top military brass, Shoigu said the ongoing exercise was a response to what he claimed were continuous efforts by the United States and its NATO allies to beef up their forces near Russia's borders.

  • Analysis: Iran's powerful Guard faces scrutiny after attacks

    The recent sabotage at Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility is just the latest setback for the country's Revolutionary Guard, though the paramilitary force is rarely publicly criticized due to its power. Its forces failed to stop both an earlier attack at Iran's Natanz facility and the assassination of a top scientist who started a military nuclear program decades earlier. Then on Sunday, the nuclear facility, of which the Guard is the chief protector, experienced a blackout that damaged some of its centrifuges.

  • People who got blood clots after a Johnson & Johnson vaccine got them within two weeks of their COVID-19 shot

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  • Government defeated by Lords over bid for prosecution limit on soldiers for war crimes

    The Government has been defeated in the House of Lords over a bid for a prosecution limit on soldiers for war crimes. The Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which has already cleared the Commons, seeks to limit false and historical allegations arising from deployments by introducing a statutory presumption against prosecution, which would make it exceptional for personnel to be prosecuted five years or more after an incident. However the Lords backed by 333 votes to 228, moved to ensure the most serious of offences are not covered by legislation aimed at protecting service personnel from vexatious battlefield claims. The Government also sustained further defeats to the Bill, with peers backing changes aimed at preventing personnel facing delayed and repeated investigations into allegations arising from foreign deployments at 308 votes to 249, and removing a planned six-year time limit on troops bringing civil claims against the Ministry of Defence at 300 votes to 225. The Bill has faced criticism for not excluding war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture from its scope, as it did for rape and sexual violence. Critics argued this risked damaging the UK's international reputation and could lead to service personnel ending up before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Bill seeks to limit false and historical allegations arising from overseas operations by introducing a statutory presumption against prosecution, making it exceptional for personnel to be prosecuted five years or more after an incident. Calls for this provision not to cover genocide and torture were led by Labour former defence secretary Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who also previously served as secretary general of Nato. Urging "tactical retreat" by ministers, he said: "For the first time in the history of British law, we would be creating a two-tier justice system where troops acting for us abroad would be treated differently from other civilians in society. "In addition to that, this Bill by saying that there is a presumption against prosecution for the most serious of all crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and torture, it undermines some of the most basic international legal standards for which this nation was renowned.” However, Defence minister Baroness Goldie, rejected the demands, as she said the Bill provided an appropriate balance between victims' rights and fair protection for service personnel. Responding to news that Peers had defeated the Government in amendments to the Bill, Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director, said: “The Overseas Operations Bill would be a huge stain on the UK’s international reputation, it would end total opposition to torture, and it’s a hugely welcome that the Lords have made this principled stand today. MPs should reflect on this defeat and drop the Bill all together when it returns to the Commons. “Yet again it has fallen to the Lords to act as the UK’s moral compass. “Granting troops a licence to torture would be an enduring disgrace for the UK and would set a very dangerous international precedent.”

  • Top Kremlin Mouthpiece Warns of ‘Inevitable’ War With U.S. Over Another Ukraine Land Grab

    ALEXEY NIKOLSKYAll-out cyberwarfare, nation-wide forced blackouts, and the targeted disruption of internet services—for one of the Kremlin’s top propagandists, all of those tactics are fair game in what she describes as a fated war-to-come against the U.S.“War [with the U.S.] is inevitable,” declared Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the state-funded Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, who believes the conflict will break out when, not if, Vladimir Putin moves to seize more territory from Ukraine.As Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s doorstep mounts, Kremlin loyalists have been urging for even more overt aggression and bloodshed in the campaign to annex Ukraine’s Donbas region. The only thing standing in the way, they say, is U.S. support for their beleaguered neighbor.NATO issued a statement on Wednesday demanding an end to Russia’s troop movements on the border with the disputed territory of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. It is the largest buildup of Russian troops since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The U.S. underlined the statement this week by deploying two warships to the Black Sea.On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened retaliation. “We warn the United States that it will be better for them to stay far away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast. It will be for their own good,” he said.The escalation was foreshadowed on state television’s Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev over the weekend. Simonyan explained that it was time for Russia to gear up for a showdown against the U.S., and prophesized a kind of war driven by hacking, the forced disruption of internet access, the shutting down of power supplies, and an all-out offensive on U.S. infrastructure.“I do not believe that this will be a large-scale hot war, like World War II, and I do not believe that there will be a long Cold War. It will be a war of the third type: the cyberwar,” said Simonyan.She warned that—in this theoretical battle—the U.S. would plot to cut off the electricity of entire Russian cities. In turn, she speculated, Moscow would be able to force a blackout in Florida or New York’s Harlem at the flip of a switch.“In conventional war, we could defeat Ukraine in two days,” Simonyan said, “but it will be another kind of war. We’ll do it, and then [the U.S.] will respond by turning off power to [the Russian city] Voronezh,” she said.The top RT editor asserted that “[Russia] needs to be ready for this war, which is unavoidable, and of course it will start in Ukraine,” arguing that the Kremlin is “invincible where conventional war is concerned, but forget about conventional war... it will be a war of infrastructures, and here we have many vulnerabilities.”Her solution consists of Stalin-type measures to eliminate “vulnerabilities” in the run-up to another escalation, emphasizing the need for a hack-proof, government-controlled internet. “We still don’t have a sovereign internet, but God willing, we will,” she said.She wholeheartedly endorsed a suggestion from Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, who argued that all of Russia’s opposition must be eliminated by May 1, 2021. With imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a hunger strike—and suffering from severe health ailments after being denied appropriate medical treatment—the Kremlin seems to be firmly set on that course.Simonyan argued that once Russia minimizes its vulnerabilities and renders Putin’s opposition powerless—which she argued could happen in a matter of months—the Kremlin will finally be ready to annex Ukraine’s eastern region.“I’ve been agitating and even demanding that we take Donbas. We need to patch up our vulnerabilities as fast as we can, and then we can do whatever we want,” she boldly proclaimed. The host, Vladimir Soloviev, wholeheartedly agreed: “We only lose if we do nothing.” He argued that by absorbing parts of Ukraine—or the entire country—Russia would be able to remove the zone of American influence further away from its borders.As one of the Kremlin’s most valued propagandists, Margarita Simonyan is notoriously close to the Russian president and has received multiple awards directly from Putin. After accepting one such award in 2019, Simonyan thanked Putin “for the most important reward in life… this honor to serve one’s Motherland.”Her “service” has involved RT and Sputnik-driven disinformation operations aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which she often boasts about by pointing to the inclusion of her name in various U.S. intelligence reports.Russia’s recent cyberspace activities seem to serve as good practice for the “inevitable war” foreshadowed by Simonyan.Last year, six Russian intelligence officers were criminally charged by the U.S. for using the world’s most destructive malware to force blackouts in Ukraine and damage the critical infrastructure of multiple countries, which caused nearly $1 billion in losses. On Monday, hackers operating from Russia targeted France’s homeschooling platform.The Kremlin is prepared to intensify its offensive against the West, but fears of the retaliation that would follow. The idea of a bulletproof “sovereign internet”—completely under government control within Russian borders—is already on the books, with Moscow having introduced the idea as a preventative measure against retaliatory hacking attempts from other nations.Simonyan argued that Russia will surely be able to exploit the U.S.’s “catastrophic” educational standards, and referred to American military analysts and specialists as incompetent and stupid. She heartily laughed about news that more than 200,000 U.S. service members experienced hearing loss due to defective earplugs.“We can never come to any agreements with [Americans],” Simonyan said, arguing that instead, Russia can just as easily defeat the U.S. in a cyberspace war.She added, mockingly: “We don’t even need the nukes.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Mexico arrests 30 marines over disappearances in Tamaulipas

    The victims went missing in 2014 when the marines were deployed near the US border, officials say.

  • Bally's buying Tropicana hotel on Las Vegas Strip for $308M

    The Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, a Sin City namesake, is being sold to a new entrant among Las Vegas Boulevard resort owners. Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corp. announced Tuesday it will acquire the iconic Strip property from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. for about $308 million. The agreement for the nearly 1,500-room hotel, casino, theater and convention property also involves a sale-and-leaseback transaction relating to Bally’s Black Hawk, Colorado and Rock Island, Illinois, casino properties, the company said.

  • The Truth About Philip and Fergie’s Bitter Feud

    Christopher Furlong - WPA Pool/Getty ImagesPrince Philip was often said to have vowed never to be in the same room as Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of his son Andrew, after photographs appeared in a newspaper in 1992 of Sarah topless and having her toes sucked by a lover in the South of France.Gyles Brandreth, Philip’s official biographer whose book The Final Portrait will be published later this month, has confirmed that long-standing rumor today in the second lengthy excerpt from his book.Even as a Corpse, Prince Philip Has to Take Second Place to the QueenPhilip, he said, declared “enough was enough” after the pictures appeared. He told Brandreth Fergie was “simply beyond the pale,” and resolved not to have anything more to do with her.At the time when the pictures were first published, Sarah was staying at the queen’s Scottish country estate of Balmoral. Philip put his resolution into immediate action, as Ferguson herself recalled to Brandreth, saying: “It was ridiculous. As soon as I came in through one door, he’d be falling over the corgis to get out of the other. It was very funny. Except, of course, it wasn’t.”Although the queen continued to receive Fergie even after her separation and subsequent divorce from Prince Andrew, Philip made it clear that he had no desire to ever see her again.Sarah plaintively told Brandreth: “Of course I want to see him. I am the mother of his granddaughters, after all.”Brandreth said when he raised this with Prince Philip, he just shrugged and said: “But the children come and stay,” adding, “I am not vindictive, but I don’t see the point.”He described Andrew and Sarah’s post-divorce arrangements which have seen them continue to share a home as “truly bizarre,” adding, “I don’t pretend to understand it.”Brandreth writes that Fergie and Philip held diametrically opposed views on “bottling up your feelings” which she believed was positively harmful.Brandreth writes that when her daughters were children she would tell them to stand in the middle of the extensive grounds of their home, Sunninghill Park, and scream.Brandreth wrote that Sarah then demonstrated, catching him by surprise as she let out a blood-curdling scream.He writes: “The prospect of encountering his former daughter-in-law screaming in the middle of Sunninghill Park could have been one of the reasons the Duke of Edinburgh decided to give her a wide berth after her separation from Prince Andrew. He regarded reticence as a virtue and self-control as a quality to be admired.”Philip did not sit down for the 2011 six-parter on the Oprah Winfrey Network Finding Sarah, in which Fergie wept on screen with a TV psychiatrist. He told Brandreth he was in favour of “self-awareness” but against “the endless introspection that seems to be so prevalent these days.” As reported on Monday, he regarded Harry and Meghan’s decision to do a similar interview as “madness.”Fergie, Brandreth reports, tried to repair relations with Philip but was constantly rebuffed.For Philip’s 80th birthday, she sent him “a handsome dinner service.” But even here, fate conspired against her, Brandreth writes: “It was supposed to have 12 settings, but it arrived with 13: the ‘sample’ had been included with the set. With Sarah, somehow, something always goes wrong.”Philip’s allegedly vow to never be in the same room as Fergie was broken only when they both attended the wedding of Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Iran says it will enrich uranium to highest level ever after apparent Israeli attack on key nuclear facility

    Iran, which now plans to enrich uranium to 60% purity, has vowed revenge on Israel over Sunday's act of sabotage on the Natanz nuclear complex.

  • Student fires at officers at Tennessee school, is killed

    A student opened fire on officers responding to a report of a possible gunman at a Tennessee high school Monday, and police shot back and killed him, authorities said. The shooting wounded an officer and comes as the community reels from off-campus gun violence that has left three other students dead this year. Police found the student in a bathroom at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, a city about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Nashville, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David B. Rausch said at a news conference.

  • Zack Snyder's first zombie movie in 17 years is a Vegas heist with Dave Bautista squaring off against an undead tiger

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  • 'Huge' explosion rocks St. Vincent as volcano keeps erupting

    La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate. Experts called it a “huge explosion” that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks. “It’s destroying everything in its path,” Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center, told The Associated Press.