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FDA signs off on updated Covid-19 vaccines that target circulating variants

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave the green light to updated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. The updated vaccines are each approved for people 12 and older and are authorized under emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years old. As part of the FDA’s update, the original bivalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines are no longer authorized for use in the United States.“Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a news release Monday. “The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated.”The mRNA vaccines have been u...

Number of billion-dollar weather disasters in US blows through annual record with four months left in the year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

(CNN) — It’s been a record-smashing year for the most expensive weather and climate disasters in the United States this year after severe storms, the deadly Maui wildfire and Hurricane Idalia tipped the scales last month.With four months still left in the year, the US has been hit with 23 disasters that each cost at least $1 billion, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, surpassing the previous annual record of 22 events in 2020.This year’s billion-dollar disasters have caused 253 direct and indirect fatalities and have resulted in $57.6 billion in damage, NOAA data shows. That price tag does not yet include Hurricane Idalia.NOAA is still analyzing whether other events, including drought in the South and Midwest and Tropical Storm Hilary, which hit southern California this summer, may have surpassed the billion-dollar mark.The impact of extreme weather is being amplified by decision...

The US marks 22 years since 9/11 with tributes and tears, from ground zero to Alaska

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ and KAREN MATTHEWS (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — From ground zero to small towns, Americans looked back Monday on 9/11 with moments of silence, tearful words and appeals to teach younger generations about the terror attacks 22 years before.“For those of us who lost people on that day, that day is still happening. Everybody else moves on. And you find a way to go forward, but that day is always happening for you,” Edward Edelman said as he arrived at New York’s World Trade Center to honor his slain brother-in-law, Daniel McGinley. President Joe Biden was due at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. His visit, en route to Washington from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when hijacked planes crashed into the trade center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, in an attack that reshaped American foreign pol...

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson was the buyer who paid $3.5M for Theo Epstein’s Lakeview mansion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson and his wife, Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Swanson, in late August were the buyers who paid $3.5 million to buy a six-bedroomLakeview mansion from former Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein.A Georgia native who previously played for the Atlanta Braves, Dansby Swanson, 29, has been a key part of the Cubs’ success this season. He signed a seven-year, $177 million contract with the team in December, which was the same month that he and Mallory married. Mallory Swanson, 25, has been with the Red Stars since 2021.In Lakeview, sources confirmed to Elite Street that the Swansons were the buyers who, through a trust, purchased the 7,000-square-foot brick and limestone mansion from Epsteins and his wife, Marie. Epstein is now a Connecticut-based consultant for Major League Baseball, and he and his wife last year paid $11.9 million for a six-bedroom, 8,155-square-foot mansion in Greenwich, Conn.The Swansons continue the Lakeview home’s lo...

How to manage your student loans after a layoff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWalletIf you recently lost your job and are worried about paying your student loans, you have several options to set your bill to $0.Though the national unemployment rate was just 3.8% in August, up slightly from July, layoffs continue to hit workers in industries like tech, media, entertainment, fashion and consulting. Nearly 1,000 tech companies have collectively laid off some 230,000 workers so far in 2023, according to tech industry layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi.To make matters even more stressful, federal student loan payments are set to resume in October, after more than three years of an interest-free payment pause that began in March 2020.“Don’t feel bad if you have to make tough choices and reprioritize,” says Scott Stark, a senior financial planner at Financial Finesse, a workplace financial wellness company.Here’s how you can make your student loans fit into your budget as you get back on your feet.Evaluate your budget and spendingCheck your b...

Chile president defends democracy 50 years after coup ushered in brutal military dictatorship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

By EVA VERGARA and DANIEL POLITI (Associated Press)SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The president of Chile issued a fervent defense of democracy on Monday, the 50th anniversary of the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ushered in a brutal military dictatorship for almost two decades.The problems of democracy must be addressed through more democracy, President Gabriel Boric said at the La Moneda presidential palace, which was bombed by warplanes at the start of the coup half a century ago.“A coup d’état or the violation of the human rights of those who think differently is never justifiable,” Boric said in his address to a nation where a significant number of people, according to numerous polls, believe the 1973 coup was justified, and that Pinochet, who died in 2006, was a good leader who helped to modernize the country. The military regime led by Pinochet violated human rights and brutally persecuted opponents, imprisoning and torturing thousands who were opp...

Explaining JuJu Smith-Schuster’s lack of playing time for Patriots Week 1

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

One of the biggest surprises from the Patriots’ Week 1 loss to the Eagles from a personnel standpoint was wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s relative lack of playing time.Smith-Schuster, who the Patriots elected to sign to a three-year, $25.5 million contract over bringing back Jakobi Meyers in free agency this offseason, played just 43 of 80 total offensive snaps. He was outpaced by Kendrick Bourne (73 snaps) and rookie Kayshon Boutte (55 snaps). He out-snapped rookie Demario Douglas (33 snaps) by just 10 plays.Most shocking out of those figures is Boutte’s high snap count compared to Smith-Schuster’s playing time. The reasoning behind it, according to a source, is largely because Smith-Schuster doesn’t play the X-receiver role that was left vacant when DeVante Parker (knee) was ruled inactive. Boutte essentially served as a 1-for-1 swap for Parker, primarily playing the X-receiver role. Then the Patriots had a three-man rotation with Bourne, Smith-Schuster and Douglas for the Z a...

Sask. premier accuses Trudeau of risking trade with India, hiding status of talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s government is accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of damaging relations with India and keeping the provinces in the dark about trade talks.In a letter Moe released Monday, Saskatchewan Trade Minister Jeremy Harrison argues Trudeau is picking a fight with India for domestic political gain and risking access to one of his province’s most important export markets.Harrison claims the province learned that Canada paused trade talks with India through media reports, and that Trade Minister Mary Ng had not replied to a late July letter seeking an update on the negotiations.The Liberals have given no clear reason why they ordered a pause in the trade talks, and The Canadian Press has asked Ng for her response to Harrison’s letter.Trudeau briefly met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi this weekend, and India’s external affairs ministry said Modi expressed strong concerns to Trudeau about “anti-India activiti...

An Ironman Wisconsin competitor dies after he fell ill during the bike portion of Sunday’s triathlon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

CROSS PLAINS, Wis. (AP) — A man competing in Ironman Wisconsin fell ill Sunday during the bike portion of the grueling triathlon and later died at a hospital, officials said Monday.Ironman Wisconsin said in a statement posted on Facebook that the competitor, whose name was not released, needed medical attention during the bike portion and died at a local hospital after being assisted by a race staff member and an off-duty police officer.The Dane County Sheriff’s Office said the man who died was a 51-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, who had suffered “a medical event” in the town of Cross Plains.Ironman Wisconsin said in its Facebook post that it thanks “event personnel and first responders who worked to provide the athlete with medical support.”“We share our deepest condolences with the family and friends of the athlete and will continue to offer them our support as they go through what is a very difficult time,” Ironman Wisconsin added.The full 140.6-mile (226-kilometer...

US and UK holding UN screening of documentary on Russia’s siege of Ukrainian city of Mariupol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:07 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Britain have invited ambassadors, journalists and representatives of a broad spectrum of society to a U.N. screening of the award-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which follows a trio of Associated Press journalists during Russia’s relentless siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the war.UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the Monday evening screening at U.N. headquarters is important because “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens what the U.N. stands for: an international order where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries is fundamental.”The screening comes at the start of the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly and a week before world leaders arrive for their annual meeting, where the more than 18-month war in Ukraine is expected to be in the spotlight — especially with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scheduled to speak in person for the first time.The harrowing documentary, wh...