* President Biden Delivers Remarks On His Administration's Response To The Tornadoes & Extreme Weather
* Dangerous Hurricane- Force Winds Are Roaring Across The U.S.
* 12-15-21 Press Briefing By White House Covid-19 Response Team And Public Health Officials
* Current Covid Boosters Are Enough To Fight Omicron Variant, Fauci Says
* California's Indoor Mask Mandate Is Now In Effect; Here's What You Need To Know
* California Exempts San Francisco From Covid Indoor Mask Rule
* LA Palma Changed Landscapes In Pictures
* Trump Felt Used On Soleimani Strike: "Israel Did Not Do the Right Thing"
* Russia's Putin China Xi Hail Ties Amid Tension With West
* Iran Allows IAEA Reinstall Cameras At Karaj Nuclear Facility
* It Just Got Real, DNA Human Mutant Morphing
President Biden Delivers Remarks On His Administration’s Response To The Tornadoes & Extreme Weather
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Dangerous Hurricane-Force Winds Are Roaring Across the U.S.
The U.S. can add high winds to the list of weather calamities this year. Just days removed from a deadly tornado outbreak, a huge swath of the country will face dangerous winds that could lead to prairie fires and blowing dust and snow.
Wind may seem more benign than the twisters, wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves that have hit the country this year. But the situation is no joke, with hurricane-force winds possible on Wednesday from Southern California to Michigan. All told, high-wind watches or warnings blanket an astounding 21% of the Lower 48 and cover 36 million people.
The conditions that will drive the winds are similar to the ones that caused Friday’s tornado outbreak: Freak heat over the Midwest and South and a storm screaming out of the West. Thankfully, though, severe weather that could spawn more twisters isn’t likely to come into play in areas hit by the outbreak on Friday. But the National Weather Service is still warning of an “unprecedented outbreak of severe thunderstorms for this time of year” across parts of the upper Midwest and rare December tornado watches are possible in places more accustomed to snow at this time of year. Read More
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12/15/21: Press Briefing By White House COVID-19 Response Team And Public Health Officials
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Current Covid Boosters Are Enough To Fight The Omicron Variant, Fauci Says
Booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccines already in use are enough to combat the fast-spreading omicron variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, said Wednesday at a media briefing.
That is, it is unlikely the shots will need to be reformulated to target omicron specifically.
"Our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron. At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster," Fauci, also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
Full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic
While the delta variant still accounts for the vast majority of Covid-19 cases in the country, the omicron variant has been detected in at least 36 states. It currently accounts for about 3 percent of new cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In some states, it's even higher, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during the briefing. The agency projects that omicron could account for 13 percent of new cases in New Jersey and New York. Read More
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California’s Indoor Mask Mandate Is Now In Effect; Here’s What You Need To Know
Californians are once again required to mask up indoors starting Wednesday as the state contends with climbing coronavirus case numbers and concerns about the worrisome new omicron coronavirus variant.
The state is mandating that masks be worn in all indoor public settings — regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status — for the next four weeks, through Jan. 15, 2022.
While several counties have imposed their own mask mandates after California’s “grand reopening” on June 15, about half of the state’s population has lived in counties that do not have mask requirements.
Where are masks required?
Face coverings are now required for everyone in all indoor public settings like gyms, malls, restaurants and stores.
Masking was already required for unvaccinated workers at high-risk congregate and other health care settings. Read More
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California Exempts San Francisco From COVID Indoor Mask Rule
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California is exempting San Francisco from a rule that takes effect Wednesday requiring all people to wear masks indoors in a bid to contain a troubling rise in new coronavirus cases.
San Francisco will continue to allow fully vaccinated people to remove their masks in gyms and workplaces while its overall masking mandate remains in effect, the city Department of Public Health announced.
“It’s a recognition of all of the thought and care that San Francisco residents have been putting into staying as safe as possible,” said Dr. Susan Philip, San Francisco’s health officer.
About 86% of eligible San Francisco residents have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the public health department.
San Francisco businesses were relieved that the city can continue permitting fully vaccinated people to go maskless in some indoor locations.
“To have any disruption at all in the progress we’ve made over the last year and a half in getting customers back would have been devastating,” Dave Karraker, co-owner of MX3 Fitness and spokesman for the San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Read More
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La Palma’s Changed Landscapes – In Pictures
Cumbre Vieja, the La Palma volcano that has been spewing lava in the Canary Islands for almost three months, has quietened but scientists have warned the lull does not necessarily mean the eruption is over. Photographer Jorge Guerrero surveys the island’s changed landscapes
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Trump Felt Used On Soleimani Strike: "Israel Did Not Do The Right Thing"
The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 seemed like the height of U.S.-Israel cooperation, but it actually became a major point of tension between the allies.
Behind the scenes: Donald Trump expected Israel to play a more active role in the attack, and he griped that then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier,” according to a former senior Trump administration official. Trump himself told me, “Israel did not do the right thing."
- Trump made that remark in an interview last July for my book “Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East."
- “I can't talk about this story. But I was very disappointed in Israel having to do with that event. ... People will be hearing about that at the right time," Trump said.
Between the lines: It's unclear if Trump's anger is entirely justified. A senior Israeli defense official told me that Israel proposed a more active role for Israeli forces but the U.S. insisted on being the ones to execute the strike.
- Israel also provided the U.S. with key intelligence support, including tracking Soleimani's cellphone, Yahoo News reported.
- The former senior U.S. official said Trump's anger wasn't totally warranted, but that he put the episode into the same box he had put his feelings for NATO — of allies wanting the U.S. to do their fighting for them. Read More
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Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi Hail Ties Amid Tensions With West
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have held a video meeting, as friction persists in both countries’ relations with the West. In their opening remarks at the virtual summit on Wednesday, Putin and Xi hailed relations between Russia and China, with the Russian leader declaring them “a proper example of interstate cooperation in the 21st century”. Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu reports from Beijing.
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Iran Allows IAEA To Reinstall Cameras At Karaj Nuclear Facility
Tehran, Iran – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it has been given access once again by Iran to a centrifuge parts manufacturing facility in Karaj to replace cameras that were damaged or destroyed when the site was targeted by a sabotage attack in June this year.
On Wednesday, Iran said it “voluntarily” agreed to grant access to the global nuclear watchdog in an effort to prevent misunderstandings, according to a report by Nournews, an outlet close to Iran’s security forces. Read More
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It JUST Got REAL| DNA Human Mutant Morphing..
Scientists got DNA to communicate in bodies and create synthetic retinas with dna nanotechnology in humans