Author: James Martin

CNN —   President Donald Trump knew back in the spring that it would probably take a year to develop a coronavirus vaccine, according to interviews with journalist Bob Woodward. Trump also suggests that’s why he initially pushed so hard for the use of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, because the malaria drug had already been tested and approved for other uses. “Well, we’re doing great on vaccines,” Woodward quotes Trump as saying in his latest book, “Rage.” “The problem with a vaccine is a vaccine will take 13 to 14 months once you have it. Because you have to test…

“Those who are vaccine hesitant have had their hesitancy enhanced by a variety of things that are happening right now, particularly the unfortunate mix of science and politics,” Collins said at an event hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.”I don’t want to have us, a year from now, having a conversation about how we have in our hands the solution to the worst pandemic of more than 100 years, but we haven’t been able to actually convince people to take charge of it,” Collins said.People need to understand that if not enough people get vaccinated, a…

Bordeaux, France CNN —   Dealing with the first wave was like a sprint, the second will be more like a marathon. That’s how Dr. Olivier Joannes-Boyau, head of the intensive care unit at University Hospital in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, describes the resurgence of Covid-19 in France. After young French people took advantage of the lifting of lockdown and summer months to socialize freely, Covid-19 hospitalizations have risen in large cities like Paris, Bordeaux and Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. French hospitals are now preparing for the long slog. The last time University Hospital dealt with a rise…

Political aides and pollsters want the president to focus on popular achievements and proposals. Then there are the policy areas that pundits and newspaper editorial writers consider important; skip any mention of them, and the speech may get bad reviews. And there are the White House speechwriters, who want the whole thing to sound good, to have a theme, and to have memorable lines.Story continues below advertisementThe result is always a laundry list that hops from one item to the next, rarely impressing anyone.President Joe Biden’s first formal State of the Union Tuesday night (he addressed a joint session of Congress last…

One classic way to alleviate this feeling is to send money. And people are donating to the many charitable groups helping Putin’s victims in Ukraine. People are donating lots of crypto, too. This may feel like a dubious favor, considering crypto’s wild volatility, but most of the swings have been upward these days.But what if we told you there was a way to lend money directly to Ukraine’s embattled government and maybe get huge interest payments in the bargain? Ukraine this morning gave investors a chance to do this by selling $277 million worth of war bonds. It’s a storied method of…

Last week the nation celebrated a new holiday, Founding Day. It identifies 1727 as the origin of Saudi Arabia. That directly challenges the traditional narrative, celebrated since the country’s modern founding in 1932, that identified 1744 as the foundational moment.In 1727, the Al Saud clan captured the Emirate of Diriyah, an exercise in pure political and military power. The 1744 date, by contrast, commemorated on alliance between the Al Sauds and the radical puritanical preacher Muhammed ibn Abdul-Wahhab.Story continues below advertisementHis literalistic and reductive interpretation of Islam, known today as “Wahhabism,” has effectively been the state religion and was the main…

Video footage was captured of the horrific moment an 18th birthday party went very wrong and dozens of teenagers fell a storey through a roof in Colorado.Three people were hospitalised following the incident, which happened in a suburb of Denver.Around 100-150 people were dancing in the room before the floor gave way, first responders have confirmed.The homeowners were hosting a birthday party for their grandson, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.The address of the party was shared on social media and quickly got out of hand,  two partygoers told KUSA.“Two seconds before the ground ended up breaking, you could hear…

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is being sued for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of transgender children and their parents by enacting measures that would make gender reassignment treatments for adolescents a criminal activity. Bloomberg reports that the lawsuit stemmed from a letter Mr Abbott wrote to Texas’s child-welfare agency asking it to treat parents who are seeking gender-affirmation treatments for their children as potential child abusers. The lawsuit claims Mr Abbott is trying to “legislate by press release,” noting that state lawmakers rejected a law that would have had similar implications to the governor’s directive. The American Civil Liberties Union…

Russia has now ordered the shut down of the country’s only independent TV channel and a liberal radio station in a move that threatens to censors coverage of its invasion of Ukraine and leave citizens with nothing but the propaganda from the state-run outlets.On Tuesday, Russia’s media watchdog was ordered to “restrict access” to TV channel Dozhd TV and radio station Ekho Moskvy, with the prosecutor general’s office accusing them both of spreading “deliberately false information” about Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Russian officials said that the two outlets were spreading “false information regarding the actions of Russian military personnel as…

Manhattan borough president Mark Levine has said that New York should seize properties belonging to Russian oligarchs, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”For years Manhattan has been one of the most popular safe harbours for Russian oligarchs to park their cash, especially via ultra-high-end apartments,” tweeted Mr Levine. “It’s time to start seizing their properties. #SupportUkraine.”London Mayor Sadiq Khan has made similar requests. In recent days he’s demanded the seizure of property assets held by allies of Vladimir Putin. Transparency International estimates that oligarchs real estate in the UK capital is estimated to be worth £1.1bn. “For far too long ministers…