“This updated version of the vaccine does not target the now-dominant KP.3.1.1 strain, and instead focuses on that variant’s immediate predecessors, including a strain known as KP.2. That strain was more prevalent when work began on the new formulation; long development times make it difficult for drug makers to pivot to target each new variant.
“Evolution doesn’t stop and let us catch up,” Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Vox. “Evolution is always moving, and there’s some unpredictability of where the virus may go.”
Still, scientists believe the new drug will provide the public with at least some increased measure of protection against severe sickness, including against the latest variants. And it could offer some protection against infection since it targets the close relatives of the current dominant variant.”
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“The CDC recommends that everyone age 6 months and up get one dose of the new vaccine, regardless of their previous vaccination status, and has stressed the importance of high-risk individuals keeping up with the latest vaccines. Other countries like Canada and the UK recommend that only those with high risk of hospitalization, serious illness, or death from the virus get inoculated.”
“officials said that U.S. Secret Service agents opened fire after spotting the suspect near the golf course’s perimeter. It remains unclear if the individual fired any shots before fleeing in an SUV. The suspect was taken into custody in a neighboring county.
The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. ET, authorities said. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw stated that the suspect, armed with an AK-style rifle, was positioned roughly 300 to 500 yards away from Trump, concealed in shrubbery that lines the course just a few holes ahead of where Trump was.”
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“The suspect fled in a vehicle but was quickly apprehended on I-95 in Martin County, north of Palm Beach.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said the suspect was unarmed at the time of the arrest. Bradshaw said that a witness saw a man fleeing the golf course bushes. The witness took a photo of the suspect’s black Nissan, and a license plate reader spotted the vehicle.”
“House Republicans are all but officially giving up on trying to impeach Joe Biden.
GOP lawmakers on the Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees released a nearly 300-page report on Monday detailing the findings of their impeachment inquiry, accusing Biden of engaging in “impeachable conduct.” The Republicans said they’re still investigating, but even they didn’t directly call for an impeachment vote, leaving that up to the wider GOP Conference.”
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“House Republicans have spent months on their investigation, which has largely focused on the business deals of Biden’s family members. A hefty chunk of their report on Monday delves deeply into the financial affairs of Hunter and James Biden, including their business ventures and loans the two received. While the report notes the inquiry remains open, both Comer and Jordan have said their investigations are largely over, though a handful of legal battles remain.
Republicans say they traced $27 million to the Biden family and their associates from foreign entities, and allege that they would not have received the funding had Joe Biden not been in office. They also uncovered examples of Hunter and James Biden leaning on their last name, and their connections to Joe Biden, to bolster their own influence.
But investigators struggled to find clear evidence that shows a direct link between actions Biden took as president or vice president and those business deals or that Biden committed a crime.
Some former business associates told investigators that Hunter Biden would put his father on speakerphone during meetings with potential business partners, though they said the conversation was limited to pleasantries. In other instances, witnesses recalled Joe Biden stopping by dinners or lunches — but that business wasn’t discussed at those moments. Hunter and James Biden have both denied that Joe Biden has been involved in their business deals — a denial repeatedly echoed by the White House.
In their report, GOP investigators argued they didn’t need to show evidence of a crime or a quid pro quo — but that’s exactly what some of their colleagues said they needed to see in order to approve a Biden impeachment. And Democrats quickly claimed victory on Monday, arguing that the report effectively cleared Joe Biden’s name.”
“So as she stood before the jury that August day in 1997, Harris, 32, did something risky: She acknowledged all of her victim’s flaws. Yes, the young girl had lied to the police about being forced to enter the Oakland home where she was raped. Yes, she also lied about her age and the clothes she was wearing. She was, in Harris’ candid estimation, “difficult to deal with,” “emotionally immature, and probably not very developed.”
“But the law does not say that you have to like the victim in order to decide that she should be protected,” Harris continued. “The law does not say that she had to grow up in a normal family, whatever that is, grow up under the normal circumstances, whatever that may be, in order to be protected by the law.”
It was a bold strategy, one even veteran prosecutors might have thought twice about, but it displayed Harris’ early aptitude for performing well in high-stakes battles fraught with obstacles. “The truth isn’t always how you picture it — rosy and everyone’s happy and everyone comes from a great background and it’s easy,” said Ken Mifsud, who was in the same intern class as Harris in 1988 at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.”
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“Harris herself asked the victim a crucial question: Why did she lie to both the police and at the preliminary hearing about being forced into the house where she was raped?
“Because I was scared that if I had told them that I would go there willingly,” the girl replied, “that it was not rape.”
Harris followed up with why she eventually decided to tell the truth. “Because I had talked to you guys and understood how important it was,” the girl said.
I called one of the preeminent authorities on child witnesses to get a sense of how unusual Harris’ strategy was. Gail Goodman, the director of the Center for Public Policy Research at UC Davis, is widely credited as the founder of the modern scientific study of child victims as witnesses. “That is unusual, in my experience, that a prosecutor would do that,” Goodman told me.
The girl, Harris told the jury in her closing statement, was the “perfect victim” for the men to go after. Would a girl who was healthy and secure enter that apartment, thinking that the men in there would “talk her through her problems at the group home” across the street? No, she would not.
“Are you to believe that [she] went through this entire process of testifying, of being cross-examined in that manner, of being physically examined, because she’s just making it up because she wants to manipulate?” Harris asked the jury. “Is she that complex? No.”
“She is that vulnerable. And they knew it, and they raped her.”
The jury believed the girl on the most important question. They found the two men guilty of rape. Evans was sentenced to 18 years in prison and Lee to 14 years. When the victim heard the verdict, she “melted in front of us,” according to O’Malley.
“Nobody ever stood up for her,” O’Malley said. “No one ever spoke for her. … Kamala made her feel like she was the only important person in her life. She focused on her. She empowered her.” (Years later, O’Malley reconnected with the young woman, who she said turned her life around. She was married with kids and was “very happy.”)”
“H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser to former President Donald Trump,..said that Trump needs “a competent team around him” because he is susceptible to being manipulated.”
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“He added of the Republican presidential nominee: “People know kind of how to push his buttons, especially buttons associated with maintaining the complete support of his political base.””
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“In an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal, McMaster lamented how Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed Trump’s buttons: “Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery.”