{"question_id": "20220624_0", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220624_1", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/business/warren-buffet-lunch-19-million-trnd/index.html", "title": "Warren Buffett auction: Someone paid $19 million for a steak lunch ...", "text": "(CNN) There really is no such thing as a free lunch.\n\nAn anonymous bidder paid a record-breaking $19 million for a private steak lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett. The sale was part of the 21st annual auction for a lunch with Buffett, produced in collaboration with eBay and the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit working on combating poverty, hunger, and homelessness.\n\nThe bidding started with $25,000 on June 12 and ended with $19,000,100 from an anonymous bidder on Friday, according to a news release from eBay.\n\nThis year's huge sum is more than four times the winning bid of $4,567,888 in 2019 — the last auction before a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 2019's winner was cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.\n\nThe mystery winner will enjoy a private lunch with Buffett and up to seven guests at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York City, says eBay.\n\nUnfortunately for aspiring investors hoping to top this year's record, this is the last year of the \"power lunch\" with Buffett. The annual auction has raised over $53 million for Glide.\n\n\"On behalf of GLIDE and those we serve, I thank Warren Buffett for his unwavering generosity, partnership and dedication, and for his incredible contribution to our mission,\" said the organization's president and CEO Karen Hanrahan in the news release.\n\nThe auction was first started by the late Susie Buffett in 2000. Since 2003, eBay has managed the auction.\n\n\"We are incredibly proud that Warren Buffett's final Power Lunch has broken our all-time record of funds raised, with all proceeds supporting GLIDE's efforts to create pathways out of crisis and transform lives,\" said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in the release.\n\nCorrected: An earlier version of this article misspelled Warren Buffett.", "authors": ["Zoe Sottile"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_2", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/18/energy/new-jersey-oregon-pump-your-own-gas/index.html", "title": "Why New Jersey and Oregon still don't let you pump your own gas ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Most Americans facing record gas prices cringe when they fill up their tanks.\n\nBut not people in New Jersey and Oregon. They're not allowed to touch the gas nozzle. Seriously.\n\nIn New Jersey, it's been illegal for drivers to pump their own gas since 1949. A ban on self-service gas has been in place in Oregon since 1951, although the state relaxed restrictions for rural towns a few years ago. Violators can be fined up to $500 for breaking these states' laws.\n\nSo why don't New Jersey and Oregon let you pump your own gas? And what happened to the days of gas station attendants filling up your tanks in the rest of the country?\n\nIt's a strange, complex history that dates back more than a century.\n\nSelf-service bans\n\nThe United States has experimented with self-service gas since the first stations were built in the early 1900s. Yet it wasn't until about 1980 that self-service became the primary gas station model in this country.\n\n\"Their rise to the top was not a smooth one,\" write Ronald Johnson and Charles Romeo in a 2000 study on the growth of self-service.\n\nThe earliest self-service gas pumps in the United States appeared around 1915. They were designed primarily for emergencies or for after dark when gas stations were closed. People would pre-pay with coins to operate them.\n\nFull-service gas stations adamantly opposed self-service. They saw cheaper, self-service gas as a competitive threat to their business and wanted to limit its spread.\n\nFull-service gas stations with attendants to fill up drivers' tanks were the main form of gasoline retail for decades.\n\nFuel sales have slim profit margins. Gas stations made their money and distinguished their brands by offering a variety of services such as oil and battery checks, windshield wiping and vehicle repairs. Station attendants in full uniforms -- some wearing bow ties -- filled up customers' tanks, a key part of their larger service strategy to attract drivers in the first half of the 20th century.\n\nFull-service gas stations played up safety hazards around self-service, arguing that untrained drivers would overfill their tanks and start a fire. With support from local fire marshals, gas stations lobbied state legislators to pass bans on self-service. By 1968, self-service was banned in 23 states.\n\nIt was not until the success of self-service internationally and a crucial change in gas stations' business model that self-service began replacing attendants in the United States.\n\n\"Modern self-service gas stations actually were pioneered in Sweden,\" said Matt Anderson, the curator of transportation at The Henry Ford museum in Michigan. \"Drivers there paid less for self-service than for full-service. From there the concept spread through Europe.\"\n\nSelf-service gas stations, like this early one in 1948, became popular as stations lost their hold on the auto service and repair market.\n\nAt the same time, vehicle warranties began to stipulate that cars must be serviced at dealerships, a shift that eroded gas stations' service and repair business.\n\n\"Traditional full-service gas stations lost their profit center in automotive repairs and were forced to change their method of operation,\" said Wayne Henderson, the author of the book \"One Hundred Years of Gas Stations.\"\n\nGas stations had to look for new ways to grow profit. They moved to self-service, which reduced their costs and increased volumes on gas sales, and they diversified into selling food, tobacco, coffee, snacks and other items with higher margins.\n\nSelf-service \"ended up being more popular because it could create large volumes and opportunities for other profit,\" said Gary Scales, a doctoral candidate at Temple University writing a dissertation on the history of gas stations.\n\nGas station operators began pushing states to repeal their self-service bans. By 1992, around 80% of all gas stations nationwide were self-service, up from just 8% two decades prior.\n\n'Political third rail'\n\nDespite frequent legislative attempts, court challenges and opposition from the gas station industry, New Jersey and much of Oregon still don't permit self-service.\n\nOregon's law says it's in the public interest to maintain the ban. Allowing self-service would increase fire hazards, create challenges for elderly citizens and drivers with disabilities and lead to gas station attendant job losses, according to the statute.\n\nIn 1982, Oregon voters defeated a ballot measure to overturn the ban, but more recent polling shows attitudes in the state are split. A 2014 poll found that Oregon residents were almost evenly divided on the subject , with 44% backing a move to self-service and 46% in favor of keeping the ban.\n\nOregon relaxed its ban in 2018, allowing self-service for drivers in rural counties with populations under 40,000.\n\nIn New Jersey, the self-service ban, along with the state's reputation for low gas prices, is part of its culture. \"Jersey Girls Don't Pump Gas,\" proclaims a popular bumper sticker.\n\nSelf-serve gas is a \"third rail\" of New Jersey politics.\n\nAttempting to overturn the ban has been seen as a loser politically.\n\n\"On self-service gas, that's been sort of a political third rail in New Jersey,\" Gov. Phil Murphy said in April\n\nBut record gas prices and gas stations' struggles to find workers have led to renewed attempts by New Jersey gas station industry advocates to lift the ban. In May, 75 gas stations in the state lowered prices in an effort to gain support for allowing self-service gas.\n\nIt's unlikely that the state will allow drivers to pump their own gas anytime soon, however. The president of the state's Senate opposes a bill that would end New Jersey's ban.\n\nThe state's residents have little interest in self-service. A March poll found that 73% of them say they prefer having their gas pumped for them.\n\n\"There is apparently one thing all New Jerseyans can agree on nowadays,\" Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said when the poll was released. \"And that's the time-honored Jersey tradition of having your gas pumped for you.\"", "authors": ["Nathaniel Meyersohn", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/17/coronavirus-could-have-new-jersey-residents-pumping-own-gas/5151355002/", "title": "NJ coronavirus could have residents pumping their own gas", "text": "WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – Only during a global health emergency might New Jerseyans finally start handling a gasoline pump.\n\nA group of gas station owners believe Gov. Phil Murphy should combat what they call a budding safety and financial crisis at the pumps by suspending a singular, seven-decade old Garden State tradition: the ban on drivers fueling their own vehicles.\n\nIn the past month, attendants across the state's 2,200 stations have quit in droves over fears of contracting the coronavirus from customers, forcing some businesses to close shop, according to an industry trade group. Others have shuttered for a week or more after their employees tested positive – all while sales have reportedly plummeted with fewer cars on the road leading to lower demand.\n\nMurphy has remained mum on the issue, last remarking in late March that “we have no plans to turn our gas stations into self-service at this time.’’ His office didn't respond to a request for comment this week.\n\nThe gas station lobby, however, has proposed a solution, an executive order that relaxes the state law against self-service fueling, at least temporarily.\n\nIronically, the argument for the change is the same as the one that proponents have long used to justify a ban: public safety.\n\n“Providing gasoline stations with this option would allow motorists in New Jersey to refuel their vehicles more safely by eliminating close contact with gasoline station employees,\" reads an April 2 letter sent to the Murphy administration on behalf of 183 stations. That would \"contribute to the slowing of the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the risk to fuel supply lines within the state by the closure of gasoline stations.”\n\nNew Jersey and Oregon remain the only states with laws restricting self-serve gasoline. In late March, Oregon made the practice optional in response to the outbreak, leaving the Garden State as the nation’s lone holdout.\n\nA change would shift attendants to a more supervisory role, allowing them to sanitize handles and buttons on pumps and to assist the elderly or disabled if needed, according to Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association. The group represents hundreds of independently owned gas stations across the state.\n\n“You could pump your own gas and get back in your car after using your own credit card that you don’t have to hand to anybody,” Risalvato said. “I don’t see the sense in not permitting that when you are closing parks.”\n\nHelp can’t come soon enough for Kashmir Gill, the owner of 65 gas stations statewide, who helped author the letter to the governor. At peak employment, he enlisted 350 attendants across his Exxon, Mobile and BP locations, a majority of them immigrants. Within the last month, that number has dwindled to 150, forcing him to cut hours of operation, he said.\n\nThe problem, according to Gill, is that maintaining 6 feet of separation from a customer is “near impossible.”\n\nSince the coronavirus outbreak, Wawa convenience stores in Old Bridge, South River and Sayreville have been forced to close temporarily because employees tested positive for COVID-19.\n\n\"That scared gas station attendants,” Gill said. “Imagine you have to give me change. You're giving me the previous customer’s cash and you’re putting the same money in your pocket, and then giving that to 500 other customers throughout the day.”\n\nThe effects have trickled down to smaller operations like the two-pump Mobile in New Milford, operated by Vikram Kumar. He said his sales dropped 75% almost overnight, with his current clientele comprised of mostly hospital workers, police and other government employees. All of his attendants are outfitted with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, but he still can’t keep a regular rotation.\n\n“I can’t guarantee their safety, so how can I force them to come to work?” Kumar said. “I’ll be out of business in the next five weeks if things don’t improve.”\n\nA majority of drivers wear masks and gloves themselves, according to Gill, and are sometimes hesitant to roll down their window.\n\n“Customers have come and asked to pump their own gas. And we have to tell them ‘Ma’am, sir, it’s illegal’. They don’t understand that it’s a New Jersey law,” he said.\n\nThe ban has its roots in a Bergen County price war dating to 1949, when local gas station owners banded together against entrepreneur Irving Reingold, the last businessman to offer self-serve fuel in New Jersey.\n\nStaying Apart, Together: A newsletter about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic\n\nSign up here to get Staying Apart, Together twice a week in your inboxes.\n\nReingold’s prices undercut the competition, and rival station owners reacted by persuading state lawmakers to outlaw self-service, citing public safety as the reason. The state statute reads, in part, “Because of the fire hazards directly associated with dispensing fuel, it is in the public interest that gasoline station operators have the control needed over that activity to ensure compliance with appropriate safety procedures.”\n\nThrough the decades, the prohibition in New Jersey has stuck, even as improvements in credit-card payment systems and pump safety technology helped make self-serve gas available across the country.\n\nFormer Governor Chris Christie talked about lifting the self-serve prohibition on the campaign trail in 2009, but later seemed to change his view, citing public opposition and the risk of losing part-time service-station jobs. The industry says it employs more than 5,000 attendants in the state.\n\nThe law has survived despite thawing support among station owners. The businesses had long argued that relaxing the ban would allow big oil companies to open high-volume self-serve outlets on the busiest highways, undercutting smaller competitors. But that fear receded as the larger players shed most of their properties, saying the profit margin was too low.\n\nThe gas station trade group estimates that full-service adds at least a 15-cent premium per gallon at the pump.\n\nStill, some in the state Legislature remain dedicated to bringing New Jersey in line with the rest of the country.\n\nRepublican state Sen. Gerald Cardinale has introduced half a dozen bills since the 1980s to repeal the self-service law. None have reached a vote, even though advances in pump technology have rendered safety arguments obsolete, said Cardinale, whose district covers northern Bergen and Passaic counties.\n\nThe real obstacle, he said, is the belief that New Jersey residents are above self-serve, a cultural credo epitomized by the popular bumper sticker “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.”\n\n“We’re the only state left with this idiotic notion that people cannot pump their own gas safely,” Cardinale said. “I’ve always maintained that they have a choice.”\n\nFollow Tom Nobile on Twitter: @tomnobile", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/03/oregonians-freaking-out-over-law-requires-some-them-pump-their-own-gas/1000215001/", "title": "America is laughing at Oregon for having to pump its own gas", "text": "DETROIT -- Jan. 1 was a monumental day in the state of Oregon, and not just because it rang in a new year.\n\nA brand new state law went into effect that day, and it's a big one. It's a first for the Beaver State. And it's sending shock waves across all 98,000-plus square miles and all 4 million residents as we speak.\n\nFor the first time — in counties with fewer than 40,000 people — Oregonians are allowed to pump their own gas.\n\nReread that last sentence. Take a moment to process it. Oregon didn't pump its own gas. And it still won't in its major counties. The only other state that doesn't allow you to pump your own gas is New Jersey.\n\nWhat's so complicated about pumping gas?!\n\nIt gets worse.\n\nAt least several Oregonians are freaking out about the new law.\n\nCase in point: KTVL CBS 10 News in Medford, Ore., posted this Facebook poll on Dec. 29, asking followers if Oregon should allow self-serve gas stations statewide.\n\nHere are some of the, um, more concerned responses, and they're all quite serious:\n\n♦ \"Not a good idea, there are lots of reason to have an attendant helping, one is they need a job too. Many people are not capable of knowing how to pump gas and the hazards of not doing it correctly. Besides I don't want to go to work smelling of gas when I get it on my hands or clothes. I agree Very bad idea.\"\n\n♦ \"I don't even know HOW to pump gas and I am 62, native Oregonian.....I say NO THANKS! I don't want to smell like gasoline!\"\n\n♦ \"I've lived in this state all my life and I REFUSE to pump my own gas. I had to do it once in California while visiting my brother and almost died doing it. This a service only qualified people should perform. I will literally park at the pump and wait until someone pumps my gas. I can't even\"\n\nSo, to recap: Pumping your own gas is too difficult. It's too hazardous. It's too unsafe. And, heaven forbid, you might end up smelling like gasoline afterward. (Somewhere out there, Brian Fantana is smiling at that last one.)\n\nTo be fair, these Oregonians have a point: Pumping gas is a pretty difficult task, right up there with scraping your windshield and turning the heat on. And the fear of smelling like fuel is all too real when there isn't enough time in the day to shower.\n\nLook, Oregon, if you're reading this, we're here to help. Here's a handy guide from roadandtrack.com on how to pump your own gas. It's only 13 steps long.\n\nIn the meantime, while the rest of us point and laugh, maybe don't proclaim you're a better state than the rest of us for a while. Okay?\n\nFollow Brian Manzullo on Twitter: @BrianManzullo.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/28/coronavirus-oregon-lifts-ban-against-self-service-gasoline-stations-two-weeks-salem-covid-19/2932779001/", "title": "Oregon lifts ban against self-service gasoline stations for two weeks", "text": "This story is being offered free of charge as a public service. Please consider a subscription to the Statesman Journal so we can continue to offer stories like this. Thank you.\n\nOne of the most distinctive parts of being an Oregon citizen, never pumping your own gasoline, will change temporarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAfter lobbying by gas station owners in recent days, the Office of State Fire Marshal announced early Saturday the state’s ban on self-service of gasoline will be suspended from Saturday through April 11.\n\n“During this unprecedented time of state emergency, we need to ensure that critical supply lines for fuels and other basic services remain uninterrupted,” said State Fire Marshal Jim Walker.\n\nOnly Oregon and New Jersey have bans on self-service gasoline.\n\nIn recent days the Oregon Fuels Association, which represents the state’s gas station owners, lobbied Gov. Kate Brown asking for the temporary change due to staffing shortages they are facing, according to Willamette Week.\n\n“This is an emergency and we need immediate, temporary relief from Oregon’s self-service ban until the coronavirus public health crisis is over,” the group said in a letter to Brown.\n\nOregon has banned self-serve gas since 1951 — excluding diesel — but in recent years has relaxed its rules.\n\nThe state allowed motorcyclists to pump their own gas starting in 2002 if they are handed a discharge nozzle by an attendant.\n\nCounties with a population of under 40,000, mostly in Eastern Oregon, were allowed to let consumers pump their own gas between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting in 2015.\n\nThen a 2017 law allowed stations in those counties to allow self-service pumping around the clock.\n\nTo allow self-service gas under Saturday's order, the owner of the station must have documentation there are no employees available to work as an attendant, including documentation of absences, hiring and employee retention efforts, according to the State Fire Marshal.\n\nIf attendants are working, they must implement social distancing policies and conform with sanitization efforts, such as disinfecting pumps.\n\nAnd station owners must post signs about how to safely operate a fuel pump and not allow self-service for over 10 hours consecutively.\n\nStation owners needing help finding employees covering shifts are advised to contact Miriam Nolte at Miriam.l.nolte@oregon.gov and 503-612-4252 for assistance in finding workers.\n\nThe price of gasoline has plummeted in recent days, dropping to as low as $2.19 per gallon for regular at the Salem Costco and the Arco at Lancaster and Hayesville in Salem.\n\nOne gas station in Kentucky is selling gasoline for 99 cents per gallon, and predictions are gas prices couple plummet in the wake of shut downs across the United States.\n\nThis is a developing story and will be updated.\n\nbpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/23/our-gratitude-list-17-reasons-thankful-salem-oregon/866667001/", "title": "Our gratitude list: 17 reasons to be thankful in Salem, Oregon", "text": "Family, health and friends are high on everybody’s gratitude list this time of year. So are personal freedom and safety and security.\n\nHelping determine the latter are our surroundings, where there is much beauty and wonder to be thankful for. Even native Oregonians and permanent Mid-Valley residents tend to take it for granted.\n\nSo, on Thanksgiving Day 2017, here are 17 things for us to give thanks for …\n\n1. Postcard beauty\n\nThe natural beauty around us is our greatest treasure. Breathtaking vistas can be seen from the ocean, the mountains, the forests and the desert. Around every bend are pristine rivers and lakes, majestic trees, fertile farmland, picturesque parks and vast vineyards.\n\n2. Outdoor playground\n\nWith all that beauty comes oodles of opportunity for outdoor recreation. From hiking at Silver Falls and biking on the backroads to skiing on Mt. Hood and fishing at Detroit Lake, the options are endless in our expansive backyard.\n\n3. Location, location, location!\n\nOur proximity to the big city, the beach and the mountains is a bonus. From the heart of the region, we are about an hour away from attending the opera, 90 minutes from whale watching and two hours from playing in the snow.\n\n4. U-pick flavor\n\nMarion County, with its rich volcanic soil, is the top agricultural producing county in Oregon. During the growing season, you can find fresh fruits and vegetables just about everywhere, not only on farms but at markets and roadside stands. U-pick outings are fun for the whole family.\n\n5. Tasting rooms\n\nGrapes and hops thrive in our climate, blessing us with an insane number of wineries and craft breweries. Tasting rooms are as much about the experience as the wine and beer, a place where you can actually meet the makers. And the panoramic views from area wineries as good as the pinots and the Rieslings.\n\n6. Green foliage\n\nTrees are an important part of our economy, our environment, and our identity. They provide food, shade and cleaner air, and we have an abundance of them. They also provide beauty (visualize the cherry blossoms at the State Capitol), tell stories (look up the Heritage Tree Program), and symbolize the holidays (get a whiff of those fresh Christmas trees).\n\n7. Thoughtful infrastructure\n\nA pair of pedestrian and bicycle bridges connects three parks in downtown Salem, providing convenient access to more than 1,000 acres and 20 miles of trails in Minto-Brown Island, Riverfront and Wallace Marine parks. Someday we’ll be thankful for a third vehicle bridge to West Salem.\n\n8. Seasonal bliss\n\nOregon is one of the few states that offers four distinct seasons while still allowing us to enjoy the outdoors all year long. The summers and winters are generally mild, and experiencing the changing of the seasons is cathartic, especially watching the leaves turn color in the fall.\n\n9. Comfortable climate\n\nAnyone who has spent time back east or in the south and now lives here cherishes our climate’s low humidity. Even the worst muggy day here can’t compare to a steamy summer day in Texas or Florida.\n\n10. Liquid sunshine\n\nSure, we complain about the rain, but it makes our rivers flow and our lakes full and keeps our plants alive and our landscape green. Without it, we wouldn’t be Oregon. And who doesn’t love curling up on the couch on a rainy day and listening to the pitter-patter on the roof? It’s cozy. It’s home.\n\n11. Disaster-free zone\n\nFlooding is an occasional problem, and the threat of the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake looms, but we aren’t in the constant path of natural disaster. Tornadoes and hurricane-force winds are extremely rare. The forest fires were devastating this year, but no one lost their life, and our forests will grow back in time.\n\n12. Gas jockeys\n\nSome people find the smell of gasoline pleasant. I’m not one of them, which is why I’m eternally grateful for gas station attendants. Oregon is one of only two states (New Jersey is the other) where it's illegal to pump your own gas. Our law was passed in 1951 with 17 justifications, most revolving around safety issues. There are a few exceptions.\n\n13. Tax-free shopping\n\nVacation out of state and you’ll be reminded how fortunate we are to not have a sales tax. All but five states tack on a tax to most purchases, from meals to souvenirs. We lament to having one of the highest personal income taxes in the country and middle-range property taxes, but no sales tax adds cheer to the holiday shopping season.\n\n14. Food fodder\n\nThe restaurant scene is always changing in Salem-Keizer. Restaurants come and go, which means there’s always something new to try. But we can always count on the classics, from White's to Kwan's. One of our best-kept secrets is our selection of vegan and vegetarian cuisine options.\n\n15. Givers and doers\n\nGenerosity and volunteerism are two of our strengths as a community. Mystery philanthropist Benny symbolizes our giving spirit and an active network of nonprofit organizations and neighborhood associations strive to improve and maintain our quality of life.\n\n16. Casual Fridays\n\nMid-Valley residents, in fact most Oregonians, are very casual in the way we dress. It reflects our relaxed attitudes and laid-back personalities. Not all Oregonians wear Birkenstocks, but we do consider jeans dressy, something you can wear almost anywhere. Being comfortable is a priority for us.\n\n17. Safe haven\n\nComparatively speaking, we live in a safe state. The violent crime rate in Oregon is lower than the national average, and our murder rate is among the lowest in the country.\n\nSo stay safe, be grateful for where we live, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!\n\n“Forward This” appears Wednesdays and Sundays and highlights the people,places and organizations of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6710, or follow her the rest of the week on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/11/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/09/costco-new-jersey-gas-price-inflation/7573012001/", "title": "Costco membership requirement for gas pumps might not be legal in ...", "text": "USA TODAY\n\nMOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – New Jersey residents are about to lose a unique perk that saved a few cents on gas.\n\nCostco next month plans to restrict gasoline sales to club members at its 17 locations in the state, as it does everywhere else in the country.\n\nSigns posted at Costco gas stations pumps in New Jersey this week carry the following announcement:\n\n\"Effective July 5, 2022, your active Costco membership card will be required for gasoline purchases.\"\n\nOn Tuesday at Centerton Square in Mount Laurel, six lanes of cars were waiting to get gas at multiple pumps at the Costco gas station, whose prices tend to be cheaper than many other stations.\n\nThe price for regular unleaded gas there was $4.83 a gallon, compared with $5 or more at many other stations.\n\nRefinery capacity:Gas prices surge again to record high but the driver is refineries, not oil prices\n\nInflation investments:Here are the stocks to buy as the market falls and inflation rises\n\nNew Jersey's Costco card exception\n\nIn 2004, Costco and other warehouse clubs were told restricting gasoline sales to members would violate state law after the retailer posted signs at pumps requiring drivers to present a membership card. The membership-card requirement was ultimately abandoned.\n\nWhile the state attorney general's office had not commented on Costco's move, a New Jersey Treasury Department spokeswoman told NJ Advance Media it has no restriction on gas sales, as long as motor fuels taxes are paid.\n\nCostco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti confirmed the change to USA TODAY, saying the company now will have a uniform policy nationwide requiring a membership for gas purchases.\n\nAn industry association official said he saw nothing wrong with the policy.\n\n\"I am learning they (Costco) are taking a position that it is not illegal to limit their customers to members at their New Jersey gas stations and I see nothing in state law that prevents them from doing this,\" said Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, C-Store, Automotive Association headquartered in Wall Township.\n\nLast time around:I learned a painful lesson from inflation in the ’70s that's paying off as things get ugly again\n\nPaying the price:Biden and top aides misread threat of inflation as warning signs gathered\n\nSo I can't buy gas without a Costco card in New Jersey?\n\nRegardless, customers under the impression Costco cannot legally can limit gas to only its club members were confused.\n\n\"I always had to use my Costco card in Ohio, but here in New Jersey they never ask for it,\" said Carnita Brown of the Pemberton area. \"I wonder why it's going to change ... and I have no idea if it's legal to do that here.\"\n\nKelly Borreggine, a former Medford resident now living in Naples, Florida, and who is visiting New Jersey for a week, said she has no problem with Costco restricting gas to club members like her. She pulled in for a half tank of gas that cost her $46.33 for 8.7 gallons and saw the announcement sign.\n\nThe biggest concern with customers Tuesday, however, were the lines and gas prices. New Jersey and Oregon cities are the only places in the nation that ban self-service gasoline, which can slow the process of filling up.\n\nDriver Jeff Rollins of Marlton, who remembers the gas crisis and lines in 1973, said he waited 20 minutes in line at Costco three weeks ago; last week he said he left after seeing much longer lines because \"it's a waste of time to wait and save only a few cents.\"\n\nHe called the high prices \"awful\" but avoidable because, he said, the U.S. could produce more oil than other countries if it chose to.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/us/five-things-june-20-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 20: Travel chaos, Covid-19, Ukraine ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Juneteenth -- the federal holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in the US -- was celebrated on Sunday, but will be observed in many places today, June 20 . Non-essential federal, state and city government offices will be closed, along with most banks, schools, post offices, and stock markets.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Travel chaos\n\nA combination of rough weather, staff shortages and infrastructure challenges have the left major airlines struggling to keep up with the surge in travel . Between Friday and Sunday, more than 3,200 flights were canceled and about 9,000 flights were delayed, according to the data group FlightAware . The increase in delays and cancellations comes just days after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged airline CEOs to improve their flight schedules and better respond to disruptions. This past Friday before Juneteenth clocked in as the most popular air travel day of 2022 , statistics from the TSA show. Airports haven't been that crowded since Thanksgiving 2021.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nThe CDC signed off on Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months on Saturday, clearing the way for vaccinations to begin soon. The announcement came shortly after the CDC's vaccine advisers voted unanimously in support of recommending the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to the nation's youngest age group. President Joe Biden praised the CDC's decision, calling it a \"monumental step forward in our nation's fight against the virus.\" While vaccinations may not begin until Tuesday in some places, health officials must now contend with a large number of parents who remain reluctant to quickly vaccinate . Just 18% of parents of children under 5 said they would vaccinate their child against Covid-19 as soon as a vaccine became available, an April survey found\n\nJUST WATCHED Sanjay Gupta explains how scientists are trying to 'outsmart cancer' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sanjay Gupta explains how scientists are trying to 'outsmart cancer' 04:41\n\n3. Ukraine\n\nUkraine's bid to join the European Union could bring \"greater hostile activity\" from Russia as the EU considers whether the country should be formally considered for candidate status , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned. Leaders of the EU's 27 member states will meet this week to discuss the possible path forward for Ukraine. However, even though the EU and its members have broadly supported Ukraine in its war effort , Ukraine's ongoing fight raises several issues and could slow down the timeline. In fact, experts say it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will be able to meet the EU's criteria to start negotiations until after the war ends. The average time for a country to join the EU is four years and 10 months\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear ex-CIA director's prediction about who will win in Ukraine Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear ex-CIA director's prediction about who will win in Ukraine 03:53\n\n4. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol will hold a hearing Tuesday that will show evidence of then-President Donald Trump's involvement in a scheme to submit fake electors , Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN on Sunday. Federal prosecutors are reviewing the fake Electoral College certifications created by Trump's allies that falsely declared him the winner of seven states that he lost in 2020. The fake certificates were sent to the National Archives by Trump's allies in the weeks after the election and had no impact on the electoral outcome. Schiff, a member of the panel, also said the committee plans to show \"courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn't go along with this plan to either call legislators back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Schiff: Trump himself was involved in fake elector plot Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Schiff: Trump himself was involved in fake elector plot 01:34\n\n5. Colombia\n\nLeft-wing candidate Gustavo Petro won the Colombian presidential race on Sunday , becoming the first leftist leader to do so. The former guerrilla with a checkered past won by a slim margin with over 50% of the votes, against 77-year-old entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernandez. In this historic win, his running mate Francia Marquez will now become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers . During his victory speech on Sunday, Petro called for an agreement to end violence in the country, saying, \"What is coming here is real change, real change.\" Outgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque said he called Petro to congratulate him on his victory and will meet with him soon to initiate the transition.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nPrince William shares heartwarming Father's Day photo\n\nCheck out this casual photo of Prince William on dad duty ! So adorable.\n\nUS Open: English golfer Matt Fitzpatrick wins first major\n\nSomeone paid $19 million for a steak lunch with Warren Buffet\n\nWell, as Warren Buffet once said, \"The best investment you can make is in yourself... the more you learn, the more you'll earn .\"\n\nWhy New Jersey and Oregon still don't let you pump your own gas\n\nYes, people in these two states are still not allowed to touch the gas nozzle. Here's why\n\nPixar's 'Lightyear' fizzles at the box office\n\nUnfortunately, the film didn't get enough buzz at the box office this weekend\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n4 million\n\nThat's how many people have been impacted by monsoon flooding in northeastern Bangladesh , according to the country's Ministry of Disaster Management. The situation could soon worsen, with heavy rain forecast in the next 24 hours. Officials said that 90% of Sunamganj -- one of the hardest hit districts -- is underwater and almost entirely cut off from the rest of the country.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"We are having to look out for slogans that violate the rules of Islam and public morals like promoting homosexuality colors, targeting the young generation.\"\n\n-- Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce, on the Saudi government's move to , on the Saudi government's move to seize rainbow-colored toys and clothing from shops in the country's capital, Riyadh, saying the items promote homosexuality. Authorities have seized items that were bright in color, ranging from children's hair accessories, pencil cases, and backpacks to rainbow stripes featured in crayon packets, all designed for children, according to Saudi state-run TV channel al-Ekhbariya. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a strict interpretation of Sharia law.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Another round of hot temperatures expected this week Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Another round of hot temperatures expected this week 02:04\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nMeet the Epic Voice Behind Movie Trailers", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/natural-gas-ban-preemptive-laws-gop-climate/index.html", "title": "Natural gas bans: 20 states have laws that prohibit cities from ...", "text": "(CNN) In 2019, the city council in Berkeley, California, held a stunning vote: it would ban natural gas hookups in all new building construction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the city's impact on the climate crisis.\n\nNo gas furnaces in new homes, the council said. No gas stoves or ovens\n\nOther progressive cities followed suit with similar bans. San Francisco passed its own ban in 2020. New York City became the largest US city to pass a version in 2021, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowing to pass a statewide law that would ban natural gas by 2027.\n\nBut other municipalities looking to take similar action are running into a brick wall. Twenty states with GOP-controlled legislatures have passed so-called \"preemption laws\" that prohibit cities from banning natural gas.\n\nIt's bad news for municipal climate action: Taking natural gas out of the equation and switching to electric appliances is one of the most effective ways cities can tackle the climate crisis and lower their emissions, multiple experts told CNN.\n\n\"Natural gas bans are kind of low-hanging fruit,\" said Georgetown Law professor Sheila Foster, an environmental law expert. Foster said cities can make a significant impact by moving away from natural gas and toward electricity, especially considering what little federal action there's been on climate, and the mixed record of states.\n\nThe climate stakes are high. Residential and commercial emissions made up 13% of total US emissions in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About 80% of those emissions came from the combustion of natural gas, the fuel that heats homes or powers a restaurant's cooking stoves, and emits planet-warming gases like methane and carbon dioxide in the process.\n\nBut clean alternatives exist: Electric heat pumps can heat homes more sustainably than gas furnaces; induction ranges can replace gas stoves. And experts stress that to fully transition to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, homes and businesses need to operate on electricity -- not gas.\n\nPresident Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, which fizzled in the Senate after objections from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, contained billions in tax incentives to help consumers switch to cleaner ways of heating their homes. But people who own and rent homes in big, multi-unit buildings depend on developers and city planners to make the switch.\n\nAdvocates worry these preemptive bills could stall impactful climate action at a critical time.\n\n\"We're afraid that's going to have a chilling effect on cities that want to take action,\" said Alejandra Mejia Cunningham, a building decarbonization advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. \"Many cities and towns have small staffs, they don't want to be taken to court, being seen as going outside state law.\"\n\nA 'new trend'\n\nIn November, a GOP bill to block natural gas bans in new buildings was passed in North Carolina but ultimately failed to make it into law when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it. Two more similar bills are being considered in Pennsylvania and Michigan this year.\n\n\"To me that's what's interesting about this new trend, it seems like states are trying to eliminate the possibility before cities try to catch onto this,\" Sarah Fox, an associate law professor at Northern Illinois University School of Law, told CNN. \"The natural gas industry realized this was in the water a while ago and has been very aggressive in getting this passed.\"\n\nThe American Gas Association, the natural gas industry's powerful trade group, told CNN it lobbies at the federal level but isn't directly lobbying in any state.\n\nBut many of the association's members, including gas utilities, have gotten involved at the state level, according to an analysis by independent climate think tank InfluenceMap for CNN.\n\nInfluenceMap \"found high levels of engagement on preemption bills within the power sector, including its key trade associations.\" The American Gas Association and its members \"appears to have played an early role encouraging these bills,\" according to the analysis.\n\nThere's also evidence that suggests the AGA is running the playbook for its members to lobby state lawmakers for the preemptive laws.\n\nIn audio of a private AGA call obtained by watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute and shared with CNN, the AGA's Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach Sue Forrester discussed the group's strategy modeling \"preemptive legislation\" in certain states.\n\n\"We launched in partnership with Southwest [Gas]. Well, they launched it, but we were helping on the back end: Energy choice language in Arizona that was passed and signed by the governor at the beginning of the year,\" Forrester said in the recording.\n\nWhen asked about Forrester's comments, an American Gas Association spokesperson reiterated the trade association doesn't get involved in state-level legislation.\n\n\"Sue's comments make it sound that way, and that's unfortunate, but the American Gas Association is not set up with lobbyists on the ground in the states,\" the spokesperson said, adding the \"we\" Forrester was referring to is \"we as the industry and all who have an interest in gas.\"\n\nCEO of the American Gas Association Karen Harbert told CNN in a statement that \"AGA is educating policymakers at every level about the supportive policy frameworks necessary for natural gas and our infrastructure to help achieve our nation's ambitious environmental goals.\"\n\nWhile the AGA and other industry groups are messaging that they are advocating for more fuel choices for consumers, climate advocates say the preemption laws are having the opposite effect.\n\n\"I'd say the industry has put decades of effort and resources into fine tuning their messaging to the American public -- and they do it well,\" NRDC's Mejia Cunningham told CNN.\n\nSome cities in the US want to ban natural gas hookups in new homes and buildings, to reduce their fossil fuel emissions and meet their climate targets. Natural gas is primarly made of methane, an extremely potent planet-warming gas.\n\nMost cities and towns in the US that are pursuing natural gas reforms are not shooting for stringent bans like what Berkeley passed -- many are trying to find a middle ground that incorporate and encourage electrification and heat pumps as an alternative to gas.\n\nBroadly written state laws can discourage that transition, Mejia Cunningham said.\n\n\"We don't expect Berkeley to be the right model for most of America,\" she said. \"That doesn't mean we should completely slash out a whole bucket of policies that could work for communities across America.\"\n\nAn attempt to electrify gets quashed\n\nIn 2019, officials in Flagstaff, Arizona, were working on their city's plan to get to net-zero emissions by 2030. Building emissions were an obvious target; the built environment is the largest contributor to Flagstaff's greenhouse gas emissions, Nicole Antonopoulos, Flagstaff's sustainability director, told CNN.\n\nFlagstaff's plan didn't include an explicit ban on natural gas; instead, it said the city would promote \"aggressive building electrification,\" thereby decreasing reliance on fossil fuels.\n\nThat was still enough to get the attention of members of the Republican-controlled Arizona state legislature, which in 2020 passed a bill preventing cities and towns from passing their own natural gas bans.\n\n\"It was a huge setback, in a nutshell,\" Antonopoulos told CNN. \"The state preemption threw a huge kink in our efforts towards carbon neutrality. This isn't the first time the state has preempted things that have made us go back to the proverbial drawing table and figure out how we get creative and innovative in a space where we don't have funding.\"\n\nArizona's 2020 law -- the first natural gas preemption law of its kind -- was a harbinger of what was to come. Since then, 19 other states have adopted them. These laws have largely been concentrated in red states in the Rust Belt and Southwest, a cluster of southwestern states including Utah and Wyoming, and New Hampshire.\n\nAnd currently, there's not much favoring cities' ability to sue states. The 1907 US Supreme Court case Hunter v. Pittsburgh favored states' authority to craft laws for their cities, and gave cities little legal recourse to sue.\n\n\"It's not a very coherent line of case law, but that's the official stance,\" said Fox, who added she'd be very surprised if the current conservative Supreme Court majority allowed a challenge to the current law from progressive cities.\n\n\"There's a lot of legal uncertainty,\" Foster said, adding that there's not much current litigation to speak of around natural gas bans and preemption laws.\n\nIn Flagstaff, Antonopoulos said her office is trying to find ways around Arizona's law. It's meant a lot of active outreach to local developers building in Flagstaff, encouraging them to build all-electric housing developments. It's also reaching out to residents whose gas appliances are at the end of their lifecycles to consider buying electric.\n\n\"Our challenge here is we have a 2030 deadline\" to get to net-zero, Antonopoulos told CNN. \"The urgency is so great so sometimes we don't have that luxury in time.\"\n\nCORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct that Mejia Cunningham was speaking on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council.", "authors": ["Ella Nilsen"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/08/politics/joe-biden-saudi-arabia-venezuela-iran-russia-oil/index.html", "title": "Oil prices: Biden turns to countries he once sought to avoid to find ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) President Joe Biden's urgent global search for help shutting off Russia's oil revenues is leading, in some instances, to regimes he once sought to isolate or avoid.\n\nBiden administration officials traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks on potentially allowing the country to sell its oil on the international market, helping to replace Russian fuel. Biden may travel to Saudi Arabia as the US works to convince the kingdom to increase its production. And a looming nuclear deal could bring significant volumes of Iranian oil back to the market.\n\nCaracas, Riyadh and Tehran would have been unlikely sources of relief for a Biden-led Western alliance before the start of the war in Ukraine. But Russia's invasion has upended international relations, forcing the US and other nations to seek out solutions in places they'd previously shunned.\n\nIn deciding the next steps, Biden administration officials are weighing a host of factors. Russia's invasion of its neighbor, which has left scores of civilians dead, has generated immense pressure on Western nations to cut their energy ties to Moscow, including from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. In a videoconference call with American lawmakers Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for a ban on Russian energy.\n\nUS imports from Russia make up a small slice of the energy universe -- roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. White House economic officials have been engaged for more than a week in how to manage any decision to cut off those imports, officials say. The Department of Energy reported that in the last two weeks of February, Russian oil imports dropped to zero as US companies cut ties with Russia, effectively implementing their own ban.\n\n\"Today I am announcing the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia's economy. We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy,\" Biden said in remarks from the White House. \"That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin's war machine.\"\n\nIn both public and private conversations, top American allies have said the US would likely be acting on its own should it target Russian energy imports. That has raised its own concerns, as US officials remain wary of pursuing any action that would fragment the carefully coordinated alliance that has served as the focal point of the response up to this point.\n\nRussia has typically exported roughly 5 million barrels of crude per day, half of which goes to Europe. Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves, could help make up the gap, but the country has suffered persistent output issues. Before sanctions were applied on Iran, it produced about 4 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia has spare capacity to ramp up production, though it has so far been unwilling.\n\nFor Biden, the effort to identify oil supplies -- even in autocratic regimes -- demonstrates the lengths he is willing to go to inflict serious pain on Moscow. He has long framed his presidency around defending democracy from creeping authoritarianism and accused his predecessor of cozying up to the world's strongmen. But reducing the world's dependance on one autocrat's energy supplies could mean turning to another's instead.\n\nIt's far from clear that the administration's efforts will yield results. Venezuela's socialist leader, Nicolás Maduro, is Russian President Vladimir Putin's top ally in Latin America. So far, Saudi Arabia has refused to increase production, though officials remain hopeful of a breakthrough. And a revived Iran nuclear deal remains elusive -- in part because of new demands by Russia, a partner in the international negotiations.\n\nStill, Biden administration officials remain intent on identifying potential supplies of energy that could replace Russia's exports. While US officials have assessed it would not be in Russia's interest to weaponize its energy exports, the risk that it may come to pass and the need to protect European allies -- particularly when it comes to natural gas -- has factored into the efforts, officials said.\n\nGasoline prices skyrocketing over supply fears\n\nIntensifying discussion of bans on Russian energy has already caused the price of oil to surge.\n\nIt soared to its highest level since 2008 on Monday . Brent crude, the global benchmark, briefly spiked as high as $139 a barrel -- a leap of more than 35% in just one month. The ramifications of significant price spikes have been a significant concern inside the White House, with Biden bringing up the need to mitigate the issue in private meetings.\n\nRon Klain, Biden's chief of staff, has also been a regular voice in meetings underscoring the need to limit the domestic pain to the extent possible as the administration seeks to maintain domestic support for its wide-ranging efforts, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's a reality Biden has publicly and repeatedly emphasized when he outlines the stakes and necessity of the US role in responding to Russia's aggression.\n\nThe President and some of his most senior advisers in the West Wing view high fuel prices as one of the most tangible economic pains for average Americans, according to multiple sources, and there is concern that the situation may get worse just as travel picks up heading into the summer.\n\nWith midterm elections around the corner, the White House is keenly aware of the political problems that sticker shock at the gas pump can pose for their party and has been strategizing for weeks on ways to try to contain the rise in gas prices while turning voters' attention to bright spots in the economy.\n\nSome Biden officials also view attempts by Republican lawmakers to pressure the administration into banning Russian oil as cynical, given they are likely to pin higher gas prices on the White House should they inch up even more.\n\nIntentionally quiet diplomacy with oil-supplying nations\n\nTop US officials have engaged in a wide-ranging but intentionally quiet effort to rally major suppliers and states to meet any demand issues that came from a Russian invasion or the bite of the sanctions that followed, according to multiple senior administration officials.\n\nAmos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, has led the effort and has worked closely with Brett McGurk, the National Security Council's Middle East and North Africa coordinator. The efforts have included meetings with major energy producers in northern Africa, including Algeria, as well as the Middle East and Asia, and with key players in domestic production. Countries including Japan and Qatar have signaled they are willing to contribute to a broad-based effort to fill gaps in supply.\n\nHochstein and McGurk met with Saudi officials last month \"to discuss a collaborative approach to managing potential market pressures stemming from a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.\"\n\nBiden had once sought to \"recalibrate\" the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, effectively refusing to speak to the Kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , who the US accused of authorizing journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder. Biden's direct conversations have been limited to King Salman, the crown prince's father, and included a call last month that reiterated a commitment from both countries to \"ensuring the stability of global energy supplies.\"\n\nThe frosty reception Saudis have received from the US since Biden came into office has deeply irritated the Persian Gulf country, leading to a lack of willingness on its part to be helpful by pumping more oil into the market, US officials have said. While some US officials believe that the Biden administration should make an even more concerted effort to engage Saudi Arabia, Biden -- who called the crown prince a killer last year -- has been resistant, the officials said.\n\nSome US officials are deeply wary of the prospects of Biden engaging the crown prince on energy production.\n\n\"Who's he going to call -- (someone) who he hasn't spoken to because he's a loathsome toad, because he dismembered a journalist?\" said one senior Democratic official who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely. \"I'm not expecting that to happen. I'm not recommending it.\"\n\nBut the war in Ukraine has caused its own global recalibration, and now Biden officials are weighing a possible presidential trip to Saudi Arabia in the coming months, three people familiar with the talks confirmed. Axios was first to report on the discussions around the trip.\n\n\"There's no current plans for the President to travel to Saudi Arabia,\" White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.\n\nStill, she acknowledged that discussions with the Saudis had ramped up, both on oil and on regional security issues.\n\n\"It's in everyone's interest to reduce the impact on the global oil marketplace, and that was part of that discussion,\" she said.\n\nSo far, Saudi officials have remained steadfast in their commitment to the OPEC+ production schedule agreed to with Russia. But one official familiar with the conversations said the Saudis expressed an openness to addressing major market disruptions. What that would entail -- or what kind of disruption would lead to a shift in posture -- remains unclear.\n\n\"There are actions that energy producers can take in terms of their spare capacity and there are actions that energy producers can undertake to increase their production of energy in the current circumstance,\" a senior administration official said in describing the overall US effort in recent months.\n\nWhile the official declined to give a specific timeline, \"the collective power of those actions and all the other tools and authorities that are at our disposal, plus diplomatic maneuvers ... that are at our disposal, collectively, we think, will be effective in bringing down the price of gas and the price of oil.\"\n\nMaintaining a tight-knit alliance\n\nWhile minimizing price spikes has been central to the overall approach, so has the effort to maintain an alliance with countries that have far more acute concerns about the effects of energy sanctions on their respective economies.\n\nIn a call with European leaders on Monday, Biden discussed potential ways to limit Russian oil purchases. One of the leaders on the call, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Europe cannot secure its energy supplies without imports from Russia. In a news release, Scholz said energy had been deliberately left out of previous rounds of sanctions, adding that Russian energy is of \"essential importance\" to the daily lives of its citizens.\n\nMeanwhile, Hungary's finance minister, Varga Mihaly, said in a Facebook video posted Monday that his government would not support any sanctions on Russian energy.\n\nEurope relies on Russia for 40% of its natural gas supply and a quarter of the crude oil it imports. Efforts to secure options to backfill natural gas supply have been seen as particularly crucial, officials said.\n\nEngaging with the Venezuelans\n\nThe administration has made plain it won't leave options untapped, including in places where the US may have other concerns.\n\nWhen senior Biden administration officials -- including the National Security Council's director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan Gonzalez, and the US special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens -- were dispatched to Caracas over the weekend for talks on the issue, they were the highest-ranking Americans to have visited the country in years.\n\nAside from sanctions relief and oil, they also discussed American citizens currently detained in Venezuela who the US wants to see freed. They include two Green Berets accused of plotting to remove Maduro and a group of energy executives arrested in 2017.\n\nWashington imposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil in 2019 and closed its embassy in Caracas after deeming Maduro's election victory in 2018 to be a sham. A US official said Venezuela would need to take several steps before sanctions were lifted, though didn't specify the conditions.\n\nEngaging Venezuela now could also isolate Russia from its top ally in South America, officials said.\n\nOne day before the trip, the US made a strange move: The Treasury Department quietly announced a general license -- allowing transactions that would otherwise would be prohibited -- for a Russian oligarch who is a big investor in Venezuela's energy market and has close relations with the Maduro regime, according to the announcement posted on the Office of Foreign Assets Control website. The oligarch -- Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov -- is also an ally of Putin.\n\nNot sanctioning all of Usmanov's entities created the appearance, to some, of trying to grease the wheels before the trip to Caracas. But the Treasury Department said that all of his personal assets had been blocked and there would likely be more sanctions to come.\n\n\"We are going to work with our allies and partners to design a set of mitigations that allow us to target companies under Usmanov's control without driving up the price of commodities like nickel, which could inadvertently enrich him,\" said a Treasury Department spokesperson.\n\nAlready, however, the political costs of engaging Venezuela have been plain.\n\nRepublican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida -- a state that's home to a large population of Venezuelan Americans who oppose the Maduro regime -- has already criticized the discussions. He said over the weekend that \"rather than produce more American oil,\" Biden \"wants to replace the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with oil from another murderous dictator.\"\n\nAnd Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is the head of the Senate GOP campaign committee, said: \"We should stop importing Russian oil, period. And we shouldn't be going to Venezuela. ... When are we going to learn that we can't be relying on these thugs?\"\n\nRank-and-file Republicans had equally harsh words for Biden: Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called it \"kind of nuts\" and warned it would \"empower Venezuela\" and \"enrich Iran.\" And Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida said he was \"speechless\" and hoped the reports weren't true.\n\n\"I don't think anybody could be this much of an imbecile. And I say that painfully because it's too reckless, too stupid, too idiotic, too dangerous for it to be true,\" Diaz-Balart said. \"This will do nothing, by the way. Venezuelan oil? They're barely producing right now.\"\n\nIt's not only Republicans who are criticizing the idea. Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who's the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would \"strongly oppose\" any action that enriched Maduro.\n\n\"In the last month, the international community has come together in an unprecedented way to reject military aggression by Russia and stand up for democracy. But the Biden administration's efforts to unify the entire world against a murderous tyrant in Moscow should not be undercut by propping up a dictator under investigation for crimes against humanity in Caracas,\" Menendez said.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Phil Mattingly", "Natasha Bertrand", "Mj Lee", "Kylie Atwood"], "publish_date": "2022/03/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/us/biden-climate-social-cost-of-carbon-court/index.html", "title": "Climate change: Biden administration freezes new oil and gas ...", "text": "(CNN) The Biden administration has once again put a pause on new leases and permits for federal oil and gas drilling after a judge blocked the administration from using a metric that estimates the societal cost of carbon emissions.\n\nEarlier this month, US District Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction preventing the Biden administration from using what's known as the \"social cost of carbon\" in decisions around oil and gas drilling on public land, or in rules governing fossil fuel emissions. The ruling has consequences for a range of Biden administration actions on climate change, but especially on the Interior Department's federal oil and gas leasing program.\n\nIn an appeal filed by government attorneys on Saturday night, the Biden administration argued Cain's injunction necessitated a pause on all projects where the government was using a social-cost-of-carbon analysis in its decision-making.\n\nThe appeal is the latest in a legal battle in the courts between several Republican-led states and the Biden administration over the social cost of carbon, a metric that uses economic models to put a value on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted. The idea is to quantify the economic harm caused by the climate crisis like sea level rise, more destructive hurricanes, extreme wildfire seasons and flooding.\n\nThe metric was first implemented during the Obama administration and substantially weakened by the Trump government.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ella Nilsen"], "publish_date": "2022/02/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_3", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/americas/colombia-elections-peace-accord-women-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html", "title": "Colombia elections: peace accord and, with it, safety of women at ...", "text": "This story is part of As Equals , CNN's ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs .\n\nBogota, Colombia (CNN) Today, Colombians will return to the polls to vote in the second round of the country's presidential elections. Six years after the peace deal between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) brought five decades of conflict to an end, voters will choose between two different futures for Colombia.\n\nThe fate of the country's historic peace process -- and how it impacts Colombians living amid a fragile truce -- may well be at stake. Both candidates have said they are going to support the implementation of the peace process but the detail of that support isn't always clear. This has understandably made those most impacted by the conflict, who worked hard to broker peace, apprehensive.\n\nThe contest has a number of firsts. If 62-year-old former guerrilla Gustavo Petro wins on June 19, he will be Colombia's first leftist leader. Petro won the first round with just over 40% of the vote . In this second round he is running against 77-year old centrist construction magnate Rodolfo Hernández, a populist.\n\nAlso for the first time, the running mates for both final-round candidates are Afro-Colombian women. Francia Márquez, a 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize winner with a long history of rural social activism, is on the ticket with Petro. With Hernández is Marelen Castillo Torres , who has spent her professional life in academia. She is currently Academic Vice Chancellor at Universidad Minuto de Dios.\n\nIn a country where women's representation at many levels of government is low and Indigenous and Afro-Colombian women are disproportionately affected by violence derived from conflict, the fact that Colombia seems on course to have its first Black vice president is noteworthy.\n\nThe two women have taken different roles in the campaigns. Márquez -- who after leading women in her community to protest illegal mining and community eviction has been a public figure in Colombia since the 2010s -- has rallied against the country's political and economic status quo while on the campaign trail. Márquez has long championed women's rights, economic empowerment programs, and access to land for the poor.\n\nBeyond a woman at the right hand of the president, what can Colombians -- and specifically Colombian women who bore the brunt of the Western Hemisphere's longest running armed conflict -- expect from their future leaders?\n\nA history of conflict-related violence\n\nWomen in Colombia disproportionately suffered in the 50-plus years of conflict between government forces, guerilla and paramilitary groups. Yet, women also played important roles as peace builders in ending that conflict, and in rebuilding their communities in its aftermath.\n\nSexual violence was widely used to gain social and territorial control. The most up-to-date data from Colombia's victims' registry documents more than 31,000 cases of sexual violence reported. Millions of women have also been affected by forced displacement, with many taking on economic responsibility for their families after their husbands were killed, and they had to flee their homes and communities.\n\nStudies have shown that displaced women face high risk of gender-based violence, including sexual violence. As a direct result of the gendered fallout of the conflict, gender equality featured prominently in the peace accords -- as did the recognition of the need for racial and ethnic justice\n\nWomen played important roles during the negotiations, even forming a 'Gender Sub-commission' , a unique space made up of representatives from the FARC, the government, and civil society and intended to ensure that all experiences of conflict were recognized and addressed in the final deal.\n\nWhen it was finalized, the Colombian Final Accord included commitments in key areas including rural reform, security and protection guarantees, and victims' rights.\n\n\"The recognition of racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination as underlying forces in the conflict, and the inclusion of provisions to directly address them ... was a hard-fought accomplishment of civil society, notably women's, LGBTIQ, Afro-Colombian, and Indigenous organizations,\" wrote associate professor of law at the City University of New York Lisa Davis in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review\n\nDavis added: \"Afro-Colombian organizations, with strong leadership from Afro-Colombian women, developed a vision for the peace process that recognized and remedied historic injustices and discrimination committed against them, including gender discrimination, in order to ensure an inclusive and lasting peace.\"\n\nYet the conservative government of Iván Duque, that came into power in 2018, has not yet implemented 42 of the 133 gender commitments that had been agreed upon, according to t he Kroc Institute , in charge of monitoring the implementation of the Accord.\n\nSpeaking more broadly about the agreement, Washington-based research and advocacy organization WOLA wrote on the fifth anniversary of the accords that \"implementing the accord has gone more poorly than anticipated, and opportunities to break the cycle of violence are evaporating.\"\n\nAlthough the peace deal is legally binding , the rigor with which it is applied is subject to the interest of the government in power.\n\nPetro and Márquez have a clear outline of how they plan to implement the peace process if elected. While Hernández and Castillo also say they will implement it, their promises are more vague. Hernández has already come under international media scrutiny for what critics say is the gap between the campaign and the man behind the campaign. CNN, for example, reports that while Hernández's \"clearest pitch has been his promise to 'get rid of corruption'\"... [he] has had his own troubles with allegations of corruption -- and some are ongoing.\" Hernández has denied the charge that is expected to go to court next month, saying: \"With current laws, every candidate can be sued by anyone.\"\n\nFor their part, the social leaders I have been speaking with in recent weeks are not confident that the implementation of the process would be a central focus of Hernández's government, meaning that security conditions in rural areas could stay the same or even become more dangerous.\n\n\"Whether, how, and when the next president of Colombia will implement the peace accord could be the difference between life and death for women leaders.\" Researcher Julia Margaret Zulver\n\nSeeking peace and speaking out against drug trafficking, child recruitment into armed groups, and environmental degradation, has come at great cost to Colombia's women leaders.\n\nFor the past seven years, I have been researching how women pursue justice in high-risk contexts. In that time, I have heard dozens of accounts of activists threatened, targeted, and attacked.\n\nMany of the women I interviewed, often with their government-issued bodyguards following closely, said that not only has the 2016 peace process never actually materialized, the threats they face are more intense than ever\n\nTheir names have, for example, been included in public death threats circulated by armed groups with a simple message: stop their social activism or die. As a result, many no longer live in their home communities, isolating from their families in order to protect their children.\n\nLast week, a colleague and I spent time with Afro-Colombian women leaders in the north of Cauca province, a conflict-stricken region in the southwest of the country, where Márquez was herself born and began her activism. In recent weeks, many of these women told me they have received death threats via phone calls or messages. Some say they have narrowly survived assassination attempts.\n\nCommunity leader Doña Tuta suffered a worse fate. She was murdered in the nearby the city of Cali just last week. She is the latest in a long line of women human rights defenders who have lost their lives in Colombia since the signing of the Peace Accords.\n\nFor Colombia's grassroots women leaders all around the country, what is at stake in these elections is their ability to live safely in their communities. Whether, how, and when the next president will actually implement the peace accord could be the difference between life and death for them.\n\nSupporters of Colombian left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro paste banners before a rally at the Fontibon neighborhood in Bogota on June 12, 2022.\n\nThe peace process is more important than ever\n\nThough Colombia is now a post-conflict state on paper, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) continues to rise as other armed groups continue to violently clash.\n\nColombia now has the third largest number of IDPs in the world, coming only behind Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Latin American state has been described by Reuters as \"the world's most dangerous country for environmentalists\".\n\nAs the FARC demobilized in 2016, other armed groups took their place. Vying for control of valuable resources like coca and illegal mining, and transport routes, these groups intensified their targeting of social leaders who were promoting the implementation of the peace accords in their communities.\n\nPetro and Márquez's platform recognizes that women have suffered during the conflict in particular ways. It promises to fully implement the peace deal with the FARC, and will focus on the rural land reform, protection guarantees, and environmental protections, that are essential for women to have the ability to earn an income and support their families.\n\nHernández has also said that he would implement the peace accord and would seek a deal with the National Liberation Army, the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, known by its Spanish acronym, ELN. Compared to Donald Trump in part for his controversial comments , including about women's roles as \"ideally...[devoting] themselves to raising children\", Hernández has however not detailed how women's unique needs would be included in this implementation of the peace process.", "authors": ["Analysis Julia Margaret Zulver", "For Cnn"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/americas/gustavo-petro-profile-intl-latam/index.html", "title": "Colombia election results: Left-wing candidate and former guerrilla ...", "text": "Bogota, Colombia CNN —\n\nGustavo Petro will become Colombia’s first leftist leader, after winning the country’s presidential race on Sunday.\n\nThe former guerrilla won by a slim margin with over 50% of the votes, against 77-year-old entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernandez. In this historic win, his running mate Francia Marquez will now become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers.\n\nDuring his victory speech on Sunday night, Petro said he is open to dialogue with Hernandez. He also called for a Great National agreement to end violence in the country, saying, “What is coming here is real change, real change. That is what we are committing our lives to. We will not betray the electorate that has demanded that Colombia change from today.”\n\n“Let’s celebrate the first popular victory. May so many sufferings be cushioned in the joy that today floods the heart of the homeland,” Petro tweeted in celebration on Sunday night.\n\nOutgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque said he called Petro to congratulate him on his victory and that they had “agreed to meet in the coming days to initiate a harmonious, institutional and transparent transition.”\n\nPetro, left, and Noemi Sanin, of the Conservative Party, gesture as they take part in a televized presidential debate in Bogota in May 2010. Ariana Cubillos/ASSOCIATED PRESS\n\nShortly after Petro claimed victory, rival Hernandez gave a speech saying he accepted the result.\n\n“I accept the result as it should be if we want our institutions to be strong. I sincerely hope that this decision that has been taken is beneficial for all and that Colombia is heading towards the change that prevailed in the vote in the first round,” he said.\n\nHernandez also said he hopes Petro knows how to lead the country and that “(Petro) is faithful to his speech against corruption and that he does not disappoint those who trust him.”\n\nBoth candidates had run on promises of change, seeking to take advantage of how many Colombians are fed up with Duque – a leader whose tenure has been defined by his administration’s handling of police conduct, inequality, and clashes between organized criminal groups.\n\nPetro, 62, had already seen two failed presidential bids in 2010 and 2018. Sunday’s run-off vote suggests that he has finally overcome the hesitation of voters who once saw him a radical left-wing outsider – no small feat for a politician looking to win over one of South America’s most conservative countries.\n\nThe support Petro has garnered can be partially attributed to Colombia’s worsening socioeconomic situation, including deteriorating living conditions, made worse by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine.\n\nWhile Colombia has seen impressive economic growth in recent years, inequality rates remain among the world’s highest, with nearly half of Colombians saying that the economy is headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent Gallup poll.\n\nPetro has historically campaigned in favor of higher corporate taxes and public subsidies for the working class and the poor, a tactic that might help him draw more people from that demographic to his camp.\n\nPetro’s party and allies were already the largest bloc in the Senate – though they do not control a majority of seats.\n\nA chequered past\n\nBorn in the rural north Colombian town of Ciénaga de Oro, Petro spent his youth in the ranks of a leftist guerrilla movement, the 19th of April Movement (M19) — founded to protest against allegations of fraud in the 1970 elections.\n\nThe group was part of a so-called second wave of guerrilla movements in the country that swept the region in the 1970s under the influence of the Cuban Revolution.\n\nM19 was associated with illegal activity – including alleged kidnappings for ransom – but Petro says he carried out legal activities that aimed to mobilize people to stand up to what he called a “false democracy,” even serving as a councilman in the city of Zipaquirá.\n\nPetro was detained by the police in 1985 for concealing weapons. Shortly after, M19 launched an attack to take over Bogota’s Supreme Court building that left at least 98 people killed, including 12 magistrates (11 are still missing). Petro denies he was involved in the assault, which took place while he was behind bars.\n\nColombian military protect a group of magistrates leaving the Palace of Justice in Bogota on November 6, 1985. AFP/Getty Images\n\nBy the time Petro was released in 1987, after 18 months in military jail, his ideological perspective had changed. He said that time helped him realize that an armed revolution was not the best strategy to win popular support.\n\nTwo years later, M19 entered peace negotiations with the Colombian state, with Petro ready to fight the system from the inside.\n\nA steady campaign\n\nSince losing the 2018 election, Petro has consistently tried to play down fears that his economic plan – which also proposes a halt to fossil fuel explorations and renegotiation of international trade agreements – is “too radical” for Colombia. He has since surrounded himself with more traditional politicians who could build bridges with the establishment.\n\nNow, he’s presenting himself as a new type of progressive.\n\nIn April, he signed a pledge not to expropriate any private land if elected. He’s also tipped a moderate to be his economic minister, and has sought to make international ties with new progressives, such as the United States’ Congressional Progressive Caucus, rather than traditional left-wing leaders like Bolivia’s Evo Morales.\n\nPetro speaks during his closing campaign rally ahead of the first round of the presidential elections, in Bogota, Colombia on May 22. Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters\n\nHis critics have said he is too intellectual and detached – if not outright pedantic, with even his own campaign team referring to him as “the Petroxplainer,” given his tendency to lecture.\n\nTo counter this, he’s been campaigning in some of the country’s most impoverished areas, where he’s been chatting with locals in conversations streamed on Instagram.\n\nPetro bet on Colombians to believe in him as an evolved politician, telling CNN that he’s managed to successfully combine his revolutionary zeal with practice public management.\n\nNext, the former guerrilla – whose nom-de-guerre Aureliano Buendia is taken from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magical realism classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude – hopes to trigger a scientific revolution in Colombia, asking economists to run through his proposals.\n\n“Magical realism comes from the heart while my scientific proposals are from the brain. To rule you need them both,” he said.", "authors": ["Stefano Pozzebon"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/20/colombia-elections-left-wing-candidate-gustavo-petro-wins/7680605001/", "title": "Colombia elections: Left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro wins ...", "text": "Regina Garcia Cano and Astrid Suarez\n\nAssociated Press\n\nBOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia will be governed by a leftist president for the first time after former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly defeated a real estate millionaire in a runoff election that underscored people's disgust with the country's traditional politicians.\n\nPetro's third attempt to win the presidency earned him 50.48% of the votes Sunday, while political outsider Rodolfo Hernández got 47.26%, according to results released by election authorities.\n\nThe election came as Colombians struggle with rising inequality, inflation and violence — factors that led voters in the election's first round last month to punish long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and pick two outsiders for the runoff contest.\n\nPetro's win in Latin America's third most populous nation was more than a defeat of Hernández. It puts an end to Colombia's long stigmatization of the left for its perceived association with the country's half-century of armed conflict. The president-elect was once a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.\n\nPetro issued a call for unity during his victory speech Sunday night and extended an olive branch to some of his harshest critics, saying all members of the opposition will be welcomed at the presidential palace \"to discuss the problems of Colombia.\"\n\n\"From this government that is beginning there will never be political persecution or legal persecution, there will only be respect and dialogue,\" he said, adding that he will listen to those who have raised arms as well as to \"that silent majority of peasants, Indigenous people, women, youth.\"\n\nThe vote is also resulting in Colombia having a Black woman as vice president for the first time. Petro's running mate, Francia Márquez, 40, is a lawyer and environmental leader whose opposition to illegal mining resulted in threats and a grenade attack in 2019.\n\nHernández, whose campaign was based on an anti-corruption fight, conceded his defeat shortly after results were announced.\n\n\"I accept the result, as it should be, if we want our institutions to be firm,\" he said in a video on social media. \"I sincerely hope that this decision is beneficial for everyone.\"\n\nAnother Latin American nation picks a leftist leader\n\nPetro's showing was the latest leftist political victory in Latin America fueled by voters' desire for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year's presidential election.\n\nBut the results were an immediate reason to fret for some voters, whose closest reference to a leftist government is the troubled neighboring Venezuela.\n\n\"We hope that Mr. Gustavo Petro complies with what was said in his government plan, that he leads this country to greatness, which we need so much, and that (he) ends corruption,\" said Karin Ardila García, a Hernández supporter in the north-central city of Bucaramanga. \"That he does not lead to communism, to socialism, to a war where they continue to kill us in Colombia. ... (H)e does not lead us to another Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Chile.\"\n\nAbout 21.6 million of the 39 million eligible voters cast a ballot Sunday. Abstentionism has been above 40% in every presidential election since 1990.\n\nPetro, 62, will be officially declared winner after a formal count that will take a few days. Historically, the preliminary results have coincided with the final ones.\n\nSeveral heads of state congratulated Petro on Sunday. So did a fierce critic, former President Álvaro Uribe, who remains a central figure in Colombia's politics.\n\nPolls ahead of the runoff had indicated Petro and Hernández — both former mayors — were in a tight race since they topped four other candidates in the initial May 29 election. Neither got enough votes to win outright and headed into the runoff.\n\nPetro won 40% of the votes in the initial round and Hernández 28%, but the difference quickly narrowed as Hernández began to attract so-called anti-Petrista voters.\n\nPetro's domestic, international agendas are ambitious\n\nPetro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agricultural reforms and changes to how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. But he will have a tough time delivering on his promises as he does not have a majority in Congress, which is key to carrying out reforms.\n\n\"The people who do support him have very high hopes, and they are probably going to be disappointed pretty quickly when he can't move things right away,\" said Adam Isacson, an expert on Colombia at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.\n\n\"I think you might find a situation where he either has to strike some deals and give up a lot of his programs just to get some things passed or the whole country could be gridlocked,\" Isacson added.\n\nPetro is willing to resume diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which were halted in 2019. He also wants to make changes to Colombia's relations with the U.S. by seeking a renegotiation of a free trade agreement and new ways to fight drug trafficking.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the Biden administration looks forward to working with Petro.\n\nPolls say most Colombians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and disapprove of President Iván Duque, who was not eligible to seek reelection. The pandemic set back the country's anti-poverty efforts by at least a decade. Official figures show that 39% of Colombia's lived on less than $89 a month last year.\n\nThe rejection of politics as usual \"is a reflection of the fact that the people are fed up with the same people as always,\" said Nataly Amezquita, a 26-year-old civil engineer waiting to vote. \"We have to create greater social change. Many people in the country aren't in the best condition.\"\n\nBut even the two outsider candidates left her cold. She said she would cast a blank ballot: \"I don't like either of the two candidates. ... Neither of them seems like a good person to me.\"\n\nGarcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/27/americas/colombia-presidential-election-explainer-intl-cmd-latam/index.html", "title": "Colombia's presidential election: A rattled country looks left, but will ...", "text": "Bogota, Colombia (CNN) Colombians are heading back to the polls on Sunday to elect their next president in a runoff vote .\n\nNo major reports of violence or unrest marred the first round of voting in South America's second largest country, which is going through one of its most turbulent times in its modern history.\n\nSix candidates contended for Colombia's highest post in May after campaigning on how to fix a country plagued by the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, social unrest and a deteriorating security situation\n\nIn the first round, left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro won just over 40% of the vote, with populist real estate magnate-turned-politician Rodolfo Hernandez taking 28% -- edging out Petro's expected competitor, the right-wing former Mayor of Medellin, Federico \"Fico\" Gutierrez.\n\nSince none of the candidates won by an absolute majority, Petro and Hernandez will now face off in a second round of voting.\n\nHere's what you need to know about Colombia's election.\n\nThe last election was 4 years ago. Why is there another so soon?\n\nColombian presidents are only elected for a single, four-year term. And Colombians are ready for change: Right-wing President Iván Duque's approval rating is at a low, with his tenure marred by his administration's handling of police conduct, inequality, and clashes between organized criminal groups.\n\nThat discontent has placed the left in sight of the presidency for the first time in the country's history. Meanwhile, more conservative candidates have rallied voters to trust a more gradual series of reforms to correct Colombia's course.\n\nWho are Petro and Hernandez?\n\nPetro is a former mayor of Bogota, whose 2022 bid marks his third presidential campaign. The 62-year-old ran on a platform that proposes a radical overhaul of the country's economy to combat one of the highest inequality rates in the world. Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, who today preaches reconciliation and an end to violence, has framed his campaign around whether Colombia is ready to elect a revolutionary. He's campaigned on attracting foreign investment in clean energy, new technologies, transportation and telecommunications.\n\nGustavo Petro speaks at an election debate in Bogota on Monday.\n\nMeanwhile, 77-year-old entrepreneur Hernandez surged in popularity in the few weeks leading up to May's vote, attracting centrist voters who reject Petro's revolutionary calls and Gutierrez's traditionalism. Hernandez's unique social-media campaign has drawn comparisons to that of former US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The self-proclaimed \"King of TikTok\" has adopted a confrontational stance with traditional media: He did not appear in several of the televised debates organized by Colombia's main broadcasters, and rarely gave interviews to foreign outlets -- although he did appear on CNN, wearing his pajamas, saying that he was a \"man of the people.\"\n\nRodolfo Hernandez greets supporters at the Palonegro International Airport in Bucaramanga, Colombia on May 21.\n\nThe first Black VP?\n\nPetro's running mate, vice-presidential candidate Francia Marquez, has sent shockwaves through Colombia's political scene. The 40-year-old Black feminist and single-mother garnered the third-most votes in March's primary elections, with her charismatic rallies attracting supporters across the country. If elected, she would become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers.\n\nColombians of African descent, the second largest community of its kind in South America, have long been marginalized in politics and in society. Marquez's candidacy has given millions of Afro-Colombians a chance to identify themselves with a national politician -- and hope for societal change in their country.\n\nFrancia Marquez is seen at a vice-presidential campaign event in Bogota on March 22.\n\nDuring a recent speech in Bogota, she quoted Martin Luther King saying she also had \"the dream to see my country at peace.\"\n\nCompared to Petro, who has been in politics for 20 years, Marquez is part of a new wave of progressive leftists in Latin America who are prioritizing issues like the environment. In 2018, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize for successfully organizing a women's group to stop illegal gold mining on their ancestral land. She's also an advocate for LGBTQ rights, gender issues, and economic equality.\n\nThe economy, security and drugs\n\nColombia has been among the fastest growing countries in Latin America in recent years, but that growth is not trickling down to working families and poorer populations.\n\nPetro is relying on voters disillusioned by the country's economic outlook and who have suffered the most in the last four years, as wages stagnated under Duque's watch.\n\nAs a whole, the country is richer than it was since Duque came to power in 2018, however the value of the average worker's annual salary has dropped significantly as the Colombian peso has plunged 40% in value against the dollar since. That situation is only exacerbated by rising inflation and the war in Ukraine.\n\nWhile Hernandez is also trying to exploit some voters' discontent with the traditional political system, his approach on the economy -- with a focus on corruption -- is more moderate than Petro's.\n\nA shopper buys produce at the Silvia Market in Cauca, Colombia, this month. Colombian inflation accelerated to its fastest pace since July 2000 in April.\n\nOn neighboring Venezuela, Petro has said he plans to re-establish diplomatic relations, even with strongman Nicolás Maduro in power. Hernandez, too, is in favor of thawing Colombia's relationship with Venezuela.\n\nThe election is also being held as the country's security situation is deteriorating.\n\nLast month, the notorious \"Clan del Golfo\" drug cartel imposed an \"armed curfew\" in retaliation to the US' extradition of Diaro Usuga \"Otoniel,\" one of its bosses, with six people killed and over 180 vehicles attacked across the country's Caribbean coast.\n\nAnd during the first three months of this year alone, nearly 50,000 Colombians were forcibly confined as a result of ongoing clashes between armed groups, according to the United Nations.\n\nA Colombian soldier stands guard near the port city of Buenaventura, Colombia, this month.\n\nThe violence is tied to the country's narcotics production and trafficking, with Colombia's cocaine production having significantly increased in recent years. The pandemic has coincided with an uptick of criminal activity, with several groups exerting de-facto control over swathes of Colombian territory including the Arauca , Cauca and Catatumbo regions.\n\nHow to restore state control over those areas -- and fight back the cartels -- is a key conversation in this election, and will prove a formidable challenge for the next president.\n\nPetro has proposed to tackle the problem by legalizing cannabis and partially de-criminalizing the consumption of cocaine and other drugs. He has said that he favors engaging with criminal groups through peace agreements akin to the 2016 peace deal with the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) that brought to an end to over half a century of guerrilla conflict between the state and communist rebels. Petro has been the target of criticism for his promises of \"land democratization\" and \"social forgiveness\" to convicted criminals, including those charged for corruption.\n\nHernandez is also in favor of ending the war on drugs. But he has flip-flopped on his view of the peace agreement. In 2016 he revealed that he voted against the historic deal, but in his presidential campaign pledge, he said that he would respect the treaty -- and even proposed \"a copy-paste solution\" to negotiate with the National Liberation Army, the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, known by its Spanish acronym ELN.\n\nWhile the candidates are presenting their plans for the future, how Colombia mends the wounds of its past will be just as present on the ballot.", "authors": ["Stefano Pozzebon"], "publish_date": "2022/05/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/21/australia/australia-election-results-morrison-albanese-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Australia election results: Labor leader Anthony Albanese will be the ...", "text": "Brisbane, Australia (CNN) Australian voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to the center-right government, ending nine years of conservative rule, in favor of the center-left opposition that promised stronger action on climate change.\n\nAustralian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese claimed victory Saturday, though it was unclear as counting continued if his party would have the 76 seats required to form a majority.\n\nEarly counting showed a strong swing towards Greens candidates and Independents who demanded emissions cuts far above the commitments made by the ruling conservative coalition.\n\nAmanda McKenzie, CEO of the research group the Climate Council, declared climate action the winner of the vote.\n\n\"Millions of Australians have put climate first. Now, it's time for a radical reset on how this great nation of ours acts upon the climate challenge,\" she said in a statement.\n\nOther than climate, this election focused on the character of the leaders. Incumbent Scott Morrison. was deeply unpopular with voters and seemed to acknowledge as much when he admitted during the last week of the campaign that he had been a \"bit of a bulldozer.\" He was referring to making hard decisions during the pandemic and severing a submarine deal with France, but it reflected claims about his leadership style as being more authoritarian than collaborative.\n\nSpeaking to his supporters late Saturday night, Morrison said he had called Albanese and congratulated him on his election victory. \"I've always believed in Australians and their judgment, and I've always been prepared to accept their verdict,\" he said.\n\nJust before midnight, Albanese walked out to to cheers from his supporters and said he would seek to unite the nation. \"I will work every day to bring Australians together. And I will lead a government worthy of the people of Australia.\"\n\nHe added: \"I can promise all Australians this no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day.\"\n\nScott Morrison, flanked by his wife and daughters as he concede defeat to Labor leader Anthony Albanese.\n\nWhat Albanese will do as Prime Minister?\n\nOne of Albanese's first priorities as Prime Minister will be to rebuild relations with foreign leaders he says Morrison has neglected in recent years. They include Pacific Island leaders, including the Solomon Islands whose leader signed a security pact with Beijing, stoking fears that China plans to build its first military base in the Pacific.\n\nOn Tuesday, Albanese intends to travel Tokyo with Foreign Minister Penny Wong for talks with Quad members from the United States, India and Japan, where they'll discuss priorities to safeguard free passage in the Indo-Pacific.\n\nThe climate crisis was one of the defining issues of the election, as one of the few points of difference between the coalition and Labor, and a key concern of voters, according to polls.\n\nMarija Taflaga, lecturer in politics and international relations at the Australian National University, said the swing towards the Greens was remarkable. \"I think everyone has been taken by surprise by these results...I think it will mean there will be greater and faster action on climate change more broadly.\"\n\nLabor has promised to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050, partly by strengthening the mechanism used to pressure companies to make cuts.\n\nBut research institute Climate Analytics says Labor's plans aren't ambitious enough to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.\n\nLabor's policies are more consistent with a rise of 2 degrees Celsius, the institute said, marginally better than the coalition's plan.\n\nTo speed up the transition to renewable energy, Labor plans to modernize Australia's energy grid and roll out solar banks and community batteries. But despite its net zero commitment, Labor says it'll approve new coal projects if they're environmentally and economically viable.\n\nIn inner-city seats, results show voters threw their support behind Independents, mostly highly-educated female candidates standing on a platform of higher cuts to greenhouse emissions and integrity in government. They targeted traditionally safe Liberal seats, challenging voters to take a stand on decades of government inaction.\n\nAlbanese is supporting a rise in the minimum wage of 5.1%, though he doesn't have the power to impose it, only leeway to submit a recommendation to the Fair Work Commission that the minimum wage keeps pace with inflation.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny cast their votes at a polling booth in Sydney on Saturday.\n\nA modest upbringing to PM\n\nAlbanese often refers to his background as the son of a single mother to demonstrate his commitment to making life better for struggling Australians.\n\nHis mother, Maryanne, suffered rheumatoid arthritis and lived on disability benefits while she raised him alone in council housing in the 1960s.\n\n\"It gave me a determination each and every day to help the people like I was growing up to have a better life. And I think that's what Australians want,\" he told the National Press Club in January.\n\nAlbanese repeatedly credited his mother for her strength during his campaign, most recently on Friday when he paid tribute to a \"incredible woman.\"\n\n\"She'd be proud as punch because she made the courageous decision in 1963 to keep a child that she had out of wedlock,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese's father was a steward on a cruise ship, and the new Australian Prime Minister was born of a brief liaison that was scandalous at the time for a single Catholic woman.\n\nSo she told him that his father had died to spare him the truth, he said.\n\n\"That was a tough decision,\" he said. \"It says something about the pressure that was placed on women and pressures that are still placed on women when faced with difficult circumstances. The fact that that young kid is now running for Prime Minister says a lot about her and her courage, but it also says a lot about this country.\"\n\nAlbanese may have won over Australians, but one of his challenges as Prime Minister will be to unite the factions of his party, said Zareh Ghazarian, a lecturer in politics at Monash University.\n\n\"He's presented himself as someone who's going to be a level-headed leader. The challenge that he will have is getting on top of and keeping on top of the Labor party caucus,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese served as a minister in the previous Labor government under prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, before taking over as Labor leader after the party's most recent election loss in 2019.\n\nThat loss knocked the wind out of Labor and they returned to this election campaign with more modest promises to avoid scaring off voters worried about radical change.\n\nPaul Williams, a political scientist with Griffith University, said Albanese lacked experience in major portfolios but predicted he would \"grow into the job.\"\n\n\"I think it will be a steep learning curve for Albanese because he hasn't had a very senior portfolio like treasurer or foreign affairs minister. And he's going to be thrown into the mix of the Quad meeting next week. So it's going to be baptism by fire,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese said he hoped his win would show young Australians that \"the doors of opportunity are open to us all.\"\n\n\"Every parent wants more for the next generation than they had. My mother dreamt of a better life for me. And I hope that my journey in life inspires Australians to reach for the stars.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/15/australia/australia-election-xi-jinping-china-relations-intl-hnk-dst/index.html", "title": "Australia election: Xi Jinping looms large over political campaign ...", "text": "Brisbane, Australia (CNN) The faces of Australian election candidates are plastered on campaign posters across the country -- but there's one face that stands out, and it belongs to Xi Jinping.\n\nThe Chinese leader, though not a participant in any modern democracy, has become a familiar presence in a campaign dogged by allegations of foreign interference and partly fought on issues of national security.\n\nXi's face is not only on billboards, his name has come up in press conferences, interviews, and election debates between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who leads a Liberal-National coalition, and the Labor Party leader who wants to replace him, Anthony Albanese.\n\n\"Xi has changed the nature of the Chinese Communist Party ... It's more forward leaning. It's more aggressive. And that means that Australia, of course, must respond,\" said Albanese during a leaders' debate, in words that appeared to echo the government's hardline stance.\n\nBefore the federal election campaign even started, accusations were being hurled that China wanted a Labor win. One week out from the vote on May 21, public opinion polls -- though notoriously unreliable -- suggest that it may actually happen, putting a Labor government in power for the first time since 2013.\n\nHow that may change Australia's relationship with China has been a common question ahead of the vote. The coalition has suggested Labor will be soft on China -- a serious accusation by a government whose defense minister recently warned that, in order to preserve peace, Australia must \"prepare for war.\"\n\nOn paper, it seems there is little difference between both major parties on foreign policy. Labor says it's committed to the AUKUS security pact, the deal Morrison struck with the United States and United Kingdom, to the detriment of Australia's relations with France. And both support the Quad, the loose four-way alliance between Australia, the US, India and Japan that is set to meet in Tokyo next week, after the election.\n\nIt's not clear yet who will attend on Australia's behalf, but analysts say that person faces a tough challenge when it comes to China -- especially after a bitter election campaign that has put Xi and his intentions front and center.\n\nAustralian opposition leader Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Scott Morrison debate on live television ahead of the federal election, during the second leaders' debate on May 8.\n\nThe unraveling of relations\n\nChina was always going to play a role in the Australian election, as a regional heavyweight with significant trade ties to a smaller nation that it relies on for iron ore and coal, if not other sanctioned exports.\n\nXi's rise to power in China neatly aligns with the coalition's latest stint in government -- both took office in 2013, and since then relations have deteriorated, most rapidly in the last six years.\n\nSome of the angst stretches back to 2016, when links emerged between a senior Labor senator and a wealthy Chinese businessmen, prompting a closer inspection of alleged foreign political interference. Under then Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, laws were passed preventing foreigners from donating to Australian political campaigns, among other measures, and a ban was imposed on Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE from building Australia's 5G network. After the 5G ban, China's foreign affairs spokesman urged the country to \"abandon (its) ideological prejudices.\"\n\nRelations soured further in 2020 when the Australian government -- then led by Morrison -- called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19. China responded with sanctions against Australian exports, including beef, barley, wine, and rock lobster.\n\nCharles Edel, the inaugural Australia Chair and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said China's aim was to make Australia more compliant, but it hasn't worked.\n\n\"It has had the opposite effect,\" he said. \"It hardened public attitudes in Australia and pushed Canberra to lead the charge against China's coercive actions.\"\n\nAccording to the Lowy Institute's 2021 poll of Australians on China , the vast majority were negative about China's system of government and China's military activity in the region, though they were positive about China's people and Chinese culture. China's tacit support of Russia's actions in Ukraine has also hardened attitudes, and the Australian government has rushed to supply Ukraine with tanks, coal, and humanitarian aid.\n\nWhile sanctions have undoubtedly hurt Australian businesses, the loss of the Chinese market forced some to diversify and they've found replacement markets. China meanwhile continues to buy Australia's iron ore at near record prices. So in that respect, Australia hasn't lost.\n\nIn fact, Edel says Australia's tough response to Beijing's coercion has created another model for other countries in the region to follow.\n\n\"Australia has reacted to a deteriorating strategic environment by investing in its own capabilities, increasing its cooperation with the United States, and reaching out to strengthen its connections with other countries in the region,\" he said. \"Pursuing a proactive foreign policy while investing in its own resilience offers a model for other states under pressure from revisionist powers.\"\n\nChances of a reset\n\nBut there's no consensus on the success of the Morrison government's approach to China. During the election campaign, even as the coalition touted its superior experience in foreign affairs, Beijing signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, a Pacific Island nation that also has a security deal with Canberra.\n\nSuddenly the specter of a Chinese military base on a nation just 2,000 kilometers (1,600 miles) from Australia's shores became a live election issue -- even as the Solomon Islands and Beijing denied they had any such plans. The issue was so contentious that in the first few weeks of the campaign mentions of China and the Solomon Islands outpaced that of climate change across Australian media, according to media monitors Isentia.\n\nLabor slammed the deal as \"a massive foreign policy failure\" that occurred despite warnings that Honiara was moving closer to China. In the heat of an election campaign, it suits Labor to call out the coalition's foreign policy failings -- in fact, the timing of the deal was so opportune for Labor that Home Minister Karen Andrews speculated, without evidence, that it was deliberately timed by Beijing to fall just weeks before the vote -- a claim Labor attacked as \"unhinged.\"\n\nEarly voting has begun in Australia's federal election ahead of the official polling day on May 21.\n\nBoth sides say \"China has changed.\" In recent years, Beijing has stepped up the militarization of the South China Sea, committed alleged human rights abuses against the minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang, and clamped down on freedoms in Hong Kong, where police recently arrested a 90-year-old cardinal under national security laws.\n\nBut James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, said the Morrison government must accept some responsibility for deteriorating relations.\n\n\"Rhetoric and posturing and a lack of diplomacy has actually played a pretty major role in how we got there,\" he said.\n\n\"We haven't just protected our sovereignty. We've gone out on a limb in front of any other country in the region to, I would argue, be pretty provocative,\" he said, citing Defense Minister Peter Dutton's comment that Australia should \"prepare for war\" as one example.\n\nLaurenceson doesn't see relations with Beijing improving under a re-elected Morrison government. \"I think they have given up on the Morrison government,\" he said, but added that a Labor win wouldn't necessarily mean a reset either.\n\n\"No one's talking about going back to the way the world was five years ago. But putting our relationship on a less adversarial stance, I think that's within our capacity. And I think Labor has options where it can make some subtle shifts in its diplomacy and that will make that a realistic option.\"\n\nIn an opinion piece published in Australian media last week, China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said Canberra should not see \"China's rise\" as a threat.\n\n\"The cooperation between China and the South Pacific island countries is conducive to people's well-being on both sides and regional prosperity and stability, and will by no means threaten Australia's security,\" he wrote.\n\nWhere to from here\n\nUnder Australian law, there are no rules on truth in political advertising, so using Xi's image on posters claiming he supports candidates of various political persuasions is entirely legal.\n\nXi's face is not only on ads alleging he supports Labor but also on billboards claiming he's backing a Liberal candidate, as well as at least one independent. Appealing to Xi, it seems, is the highest political insult.\n\nA poster that claims Chinese President Xi Jinping backs a Liberal candidate.\n\nAndrew Hughes, a marketing expert at the Australian National University, says Australia is known as the \"Wild West\" when it comes to political advertising, but the use of China in this campaign had nonetheless been remarkable.\n\n\"It's actually more noticeable, I think, in this election than I've ever seen the use of a foreign government in election campaigns outside wartime,\" Hughes said.\n\nHughes said the coalition was using China to establish the connection in people's minds that \"Labor equals fear,\" though he questioned the effectiveness of that strategy with an audience with only half an eye on the issues.\n\n\"Most people don't have that level of engagement with politics in the first place to make that messaging effective. Hence why (the coalition) is probably going a little bit more negative, and a little bit harder on things.\"\n\nEdel, from CSIS, said no matter who wins, Australia has a better chance of improving its relationship if it stands its ground, and that's possible under either leadership.\n\n\"While there may be differences in tone and approach, both parties now support increasing Australia's defense budget, working more closely with the United States and other like-minded countries, countering China's push into the Pacific, calling out Beijing's egregious human rights violations, and taking actions to protect Australia's democracy,\" he said.\n\nHowever, Laurenceson said a calmer approach and the realization that Australia can't dictate China's relationships in the Pacific would go a long way towards putting the relationship on a firmer footing.\n\n\"There's a track record of overreaction and panic, that's for sure. And how does that actually help you respond?\" he said. \"Having a strategy with a goal of denying the Beijing enhanced relationships in the region is just ridiculous. It's unrealistic. So yes, let's take it seriously, let's respond with a clear strategy. But let's make sure our assessments and our strategy are at least based on reality.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/20/israel-government-dissolves-parliament-new-elections/7682659001/", "title": "Israel's coalition government disbands, calls new elections", "text": "Jotam Confino\n\nSpecial to USA TODAY\n\nJERUSALEM – Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced in a televised speech on Wednesday that his government would put forward a bill to dissolve parliament next week, effectively sending the country to a fifth election in three years.\n\nBennett said he had “exhausted all options to stabilize” his fragile minority coalition, which has suffered from rebellious lawmakers in recent weeks.\n\nAccording to Israeli media, Bennett’s decision took a number of his colleagues by surprise, among them Defense Minister Benny Gantz.\n\nThe most recent pressing issue that brought the coalition on a verge of collapse was a failure to pass a bill that would extend Israeli law to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.\n\nBennett ousted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June 2021, ending his 12 years in power. The right-wing leader and former Netanyahu ally’s eight-party coalition consisted of his own nationalist party, as well as right-wing, centrist, leftist parties and for the first time in the country’s history, an Arab-Israeli party.\n\nDespite portraying itself as a “government of change,” a number of Netanyahu policies have remained in place, such as the opposition to a Palestinian state, expansion of West Bank settlements, air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria and an opposition to a nuclear deal with Iran.\n\nMore:Who is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s next prime minister if Benjamin Netanyahu is ousted?\n\nRight-wing lawmakers hopeful\n\nOppositions leader Netanyahu welcomed Bennett’s decision to dissolve parliament next week, saying he intends to form “a wide, national government headed by Likud,” his party.\n\nThe former prime minister also accused the government of being “dependent on supporters of terrorism,” a reference to the Arab-Israeli coalition party, United Arab List.\n\nNetanyahu’s closest confidant, Likud lawmaker Micky Zohar, told USA TODAY that he hopes the elections will result in a “right wing government” headed by Netanyahu.\n\nNetanyahu, the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history, is on trial in three different corruption cases, one of the main reasons why a number of right-wing lawmakers and former allies refuse to join a government headed by him.\n\nAccording to recent polls in Israeli media, the Netanyahu block, which consists of Likud, two ultra-orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, and the right-wing nationalist Religious Zionism party, won’t be able to form a government, falling short of one mandate.\n\nForeign Minister Yair Lapid, who will become interim prime minister when parliament dissolves, as per the coalition agreement, hailed Bennett as a “vital Israeli leader, while promising to continue to “wage the campaign against Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.”\n\nLapid will welcome U.S. President Joe Biden when he makes his first visit to Israel next month. The political crisis, however, is now threatening to overshadow Biden’s visit to Israel, which is still expected to take place.\n\nElections are expected to be held at the end of October. Elections can however be avoided if 61 lawmakers rally behind a candidate to form a new government in the coming days.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-16-june-23/index.html", "title": "Photos this week: June 16-June 23, 2022", "text": "Bakhtar News Agency/AP Afghans evacuate after a deadly magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more on Wednesday, June 22. See photos from the earthquake The week in 36 photos\n\nBakhtar News Agency/AP Afghans evacuate after a deadly magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more on Wednesday, June 22. See photos from the earthquake\n\nAfghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 quake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more.\n\nThe earthquake hit in the early hours of the morning near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were constructed out of materials vulnerable to damage.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.\n\nHere are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/summit-of-the-americas-joe-biden/index.html", "title": "Snubs from key leaders at Summit of the Americas reveal Biden's ...", "text": "(CNN) The decision by Mexico's President to boycott this week's summit for regional leaders in Los Angeles rendered futile months of work by President Joe Biden and other top officials to convince him to attend.\n\nNow, key nations in Central America are following President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's lead, dispatching only lower-level delegates instead of their leaders. And by the time Biden arrives to the summit Wednesday, questions over the event's invitation list and attendees will have obscured its larger purpose, a source of frustration to administration officials who didn't necessarily expect the mess.\n\nThe decision by several countries to stay away from the southern California gathering, a protest of Biden's decision not to invite three regional autocrats, has underscored the struggle to exert US influence in a region that has become fractured politically and is struggling economically.\n\nAnd it has exposed the difficulties and contradictions in Biden's vow to restore democratic values to American foreign policy. Even as he takes a stand against inviting dictators to a summit on US soil, prompting anger and boycotts from those key regional partners, his aides are simultaneously planning a visit to Saudi Arabia — seen as a necessity at a moment of a global energy crisis, despite the kingdom's grave human rights record. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday the kingdom is an \"important partner,\" though Biden once said it must be made a \"pariah.\"\n\nIn the end, the White House announced Tuesday that 23 heads of state will attend this week's Summit of the Americas, which administration officials said was in line with past iterations of the triennial confab. One leader who was on the fence, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, will attend and meet Biden for the first time.\n\nYet the absences of the presidents of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are still notable since the United States has worked to cultivate those leaders as partners on immigration, an issue that looms as a political liability for Biden.\n\nAdministration officials on Monday dismissed concerns about attendance at the summit, saying they did not believe lower-level delegates from certain countries will alter the outcome.\n\n\"We really do expect that the participation will not be in any way a barrier to getting significant business done at the summit. In fact, quite the opposite, we are very pleased with how the deliverables are shaping up and with other countries commitment to them,\" one senior administration official said, adding the commitments will range from short term to long term.\n\nAnd the White House insisted the President was firm in his view that the autocratic leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua should not be invited to participate — even if it means widening rifts with other countries in the region.\n\n\"At the end of the day, to your question, we just don't believe dictators should be invited. We don't regret that, and the President will stand by his principle,\" Jean-Pierre said.\n\nTroubles have been on the horizon for months\n\nBiden, who arrives in Los Angeles on Wednesday, is expected announce a new partnership with countries in the Western Hemisphere during the gathering as part of a broader effort to stabilize the region, according to the officials.\n\nHe and his administration have been working since last year to organize the summit, which was formally announced last August. The city of Los Angeles was selected as the venue in January. Biden named former Sen. Chris Dodd, his friend and former colleague on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the special adviser for the event.\n\nDodd traveled in the region to muster support, one of a number of administration envoys to Central and South America that included Vice President Kamala Harris and even first lady Jill Biden. Yet as the summit approached, it became evident an event designed to reassert American leadership in the region was facing serious hurdles.\n\nFor weeks before the summit began, López Obrador hinted that he would boycott unless all leaders from the region were invited -- including those from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, each of whom has faced US opposition because of their human rights records. Other, mostly leftist leaders signaled they, too, may not attend if invitations did not go to everyone.\n\nAdministration officials privately cast doubt those leaders would follow through on their threats, suggesting they were instead attempts to play to domestic audiences that are often skeptical of the United States.\n\nDuring an April telephone call between Biden and López Obrador, the subject of the summit arose. In a readout, the White House said the men \"looked forward to meeting again at the June Summit of the Americas,\" a sign the administration believed then the Mexican president would attend.\n\nOver the past weeks, Dodd spent lengthy virtual sessions lobbying López Obrador to reconsider his threat of a boycott. Members of Congress -- including Sen. Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- began to publicly agitate against inviting any leaders from Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua. And frustration mounted among administration officials that questions over the invitations and attendees were clouding out the summit's intended goals.\n\n\"The biggest problem is that the focus on attendance takes us away from the focus on substance, but that is the logical thing that happens ahead of a summit. It's like the sausage-making period. We don't talk much about the substance because the summit hasn't started yet, we talk only about who might be there,\" said Roberta Jacobson, the former US ambassador to Mexico who also served as an adviser to Biden on southern border policy.\n\nUltimately, the weeks of speculation were put to rest — but not in the way the White House had hoped.\n\n\"There cannot be a Summit of the Americas if all countries of the Americas cannot attend,\" López Obrador said at a news conference in Mexico City. \"This is to continue the old interventionist policies, of lack of respect for nations and their people.\"\n\nMexican President's absence not a part of a larger rift, officials say\n\nMexican officials had conveyed their President's decision to the White House beforehand, and Biden was made aware before the news became public. Instead of meeting at the summit, Biden and López Obrador will meet in Washington next month.\n\n\"The fact that they disagree about this issue is now very clear,\" a senior administration official said.\n\nOfficials sought to emphasize the decision to boycott was rooted in a specific disagreement over the invite list and was not indicative of a larger rift.\n\n\"What we have done in recent weeks, going back almost a month now, is consulted -- consulted with our partners and friends in the region so that we understood the contours of their views,\" the senior administration official said. \"In the end, the President decided and very much made this point in all of the engagements that we had ... which is that we believe the best use of this summit is to bring together countries that share a set of democratic principles.\"\n\nBiden is turning his focus to the Americas after a series of foreign policy crises in other parts of the world, including the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He completed his first visit to Asia at the end of last month.\n\nThat region is one where his animating message of \"autocracy versus democracy\" is playing out in real time, as China works to make inroads and economically challenged nations look for support from abroad.\n\nIn opening remarks Wednesday, Biden will unveil the so-called \"Americas partnership\" that will focus on five issues, including economic recovery, mobilizing investments, supply chains, clean energy and trade -- all with the hopes of strengthening US partnerships in a region many US leaders have been accused of ignoring.\n\nDuring the summit, Biden is also expected to announce more than $300 million in assistance to fight food insecurity, in addition to other private sector commitments, as well as health initiatives and a partnership on climate resilience.\n\nBiden to unveil new initiatives at summit\n\nWhile at the summit, the President and his team will be unveiling a series of new initiatives.\n\nHarris, who arrived in Los Angeles earlier in the week, on Tuesday announced two updates to her work in addressing the root causes of migration to the southern border. First, she announced that through her \"Call to Action,\" which aimed to promoting economic opportunity, she has now secured more than $3.2 billion in private investment for the region.\n\nCNN previously reported the new commitments come from 10 companies totaling more than $1.9 billion, including the Gap Inc. which has pledged $150 million by 2025 to increase their sourcing from Central America, according to a fact sheet from the White House. Other companies include Millicom, Yazaki, Unifi, San Mar, Pantaleon and Fundación Terra.\n\nHarris also said she will be launching \"In Her Hands,\" a new private sector program aimed at empowering, training and protecting men in the northern Central America region and across the Western Hemisphere.\n\nAnd on Wednesday the Biden administration will unveil an \"Action Plan on Health and Resilience in the Americas,\" which is aimed at helping partner nations \"prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemic threats and other public health emergencies while also expanding the equitable delivery of healthcare and public health services to remote, vulnerable, and marginalized populations,\" a senior administration official said. The senior administration official said the plan is expected to be fully implemented by 2030.\n\nHealth and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is expected to announce the initiative at the CEO Summit Plenary Session as well..\n\nAs part of Wednesday's announcement, the administration is slated to announce roughly $100 million in funding, in concert with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), to provide basic and specialized training for 500,000 public health, health science and medical professionals through the next five years through the newly launched Americas Health Corps, or Fuerza de Salud de las Americas.\n\nCaravan highlights need to work fast on migration\n\nAs the summit was getting underway, the imperative to make progress on immigration was being starkly illustrated in southern Mexico. A new migrant caravan there set out on foot Monday, timed to bring attention to the issue as leaders were gathering in Los Angeles.\n\nAn official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said a group of about 2,300 people left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday heading north. The official said the group is comprised mostly of Venezuelans, but also includes migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, El Salvador and Honduras.\n\nA regional immigration group, Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el SE Mexicano, said in a bulletin that the group included principally families and children \"who demand access to migration procedures and dignified treatment by the authorities.\" Tapachula, located just across the border from Guatemala, is a popular way station for migrants traveling from Central America.\n\nUnder Mexican immigration laws, migrants and asylum-seekers are often made to wait in the area for several months with limited opportunities for work. Northward caravans of migrants have left Tapachula regularly in the past year, although this week's appears to be one of the largest. This caravan gathered partially in protest to immigration policies and it would be weeks before they arrived to the US southern border, assuming they all do.\n\nIn Los Angeles, Biden and other leaders are expected to agree to a new migration document, dubbed the Los Angeles Declaration, during their Friday meetings. It's meant to spell out how countries in the region and around the world should share responsibility for taking in migrants.\n\nOfficials said they were confident Mexico would sign on.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/primary-elections-june-7-california-iowa/index.html", "title": "Primary election: California voters send a stark message to ...", "text": "(CNN) Voters in two of the most liberal cities in America sent a clear message to the Democratic Party on Tuesday: they want their leaders to refocus on the most basic functions of government by ensuring their safety, protecting their quality of life and restoring order.\n\nFor months now, voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles have voiced their concerns that daily life in their cities appears to be spiraling out of control. Residents in San Francisco have been contending with a rise in burglaries and car thefts, as well an alarming spate of hate crimes directed against Asian Americans. Los Angeles residents have witnessed a sharp increase in violent crime, while city leaders have been grappling with a homelessness crisis that has led to the proliferation of tents and trash across parks, sidewalks and public spaces, while exposing an untreated mental health emergency on their streets.\n\nOn Tuesday, San Francisco voters registered their disquiet by recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin amid concern that he was advancing progressive policies as a national criminal justice reform advocate at the cost of their safety. It was a move that signaled just how far the political pendulum has swung since the 2020 election cycle when many Democratic voters cited police accountability and criminal justice overhauls among their top concerns -- a debate that reached a crescendo following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.\n\nOn the same night, voters in the overwhelmingly progressive city of Los Angeles signaled their unease with Democrats' handling of crime and homelessness by elevating billionaire shopping mall magnate Rick Caruso, a former Republican who became a Democrat earlier this year, into a runoff race to replace term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti.\n\nSix-term US Rep. Karen Bass was once viewed as the frontrunner in the mayor's race, but Caruso mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge against her, spending $40 million to push the argument that city leaders have failed to keep people safe and have proven inept in finding solutions to house some 41,000 people living on the streets.\n\nBass, a Democrat who led the House negotiations on legislation to increase police accountability after Floyd's death, has promised to make public safety a priority. She pledged to restore the Los Angeles Police Department to its authorized force of 9,700 officers, in part by hiring more civilians to free up 250 officers to return to street patrols. But she has not gone as far as Caruso, who has promised to hire 1,500 additional officers and to bring on some 500 sanitation workers to clean up the streets -- proposals that his critics say the city cannot afford.\n\nFor months now, the crosswinds facing Democrats nationally as they struggle to find an effective message on crime and inflation have been apparent in races across California, where Democrats currently hold all the statewide offices and dominate the congressional delegation.\n\nThe new map that was drawn by the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission last year yielded as many as ten competitive House races in California, where Democrats were bullish about the potential for pickups.\n\nBut those ambitions have been tempered by the fact that Golden State voters are contending with the highest gas prices in the nation, unsettled by the spike in violent crime and frustrated by the fact that they see no improvement in homelessness even though billions of dollars are flowing to build housing and shelters. All those issues have surfaced in close races in the state, emboldening Republicans who are advancing the notion that Democratic policies are leading to chaos.\n\nThe low turnout in Tuesday's elections in California and New Jersey was another sign that Democrats are failing to energize their voters in states that will be key to their hopes of holding control of Congress.\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear Elizabeth Warren's plan to avoid an election loss for Democrats Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear Elizabeth Warren's plan to avoid an election loss for Democrats 01:19\n\nDespite an array of competitive House races -- where the top two vote-getters regardless of party will advance to the general election -- only 19% of California ballots had been returned as of Tuesday even though they were mailed to nearly 22 million voters weeks ago, according to ballot tracking data from the California-based firm Political Data Intelligence.\n\nMississippi, Montana, Voters also cast ballots in Iowa New Mexico and South Dakota on Tuesday in primary contests that offered a window into how much voters intend to blame the party in power for their dissatisfaction about the state of the economy and the country.\n\nSeveral California Republican incumbents faced their own challenges as the various factions of the GOP continue to wrestle for dominance. Rep. David Valadao, one of ten GOP members who supported Trump's 2021 impeachment, faced a challenge on his right in his Democratic-leaning Central Valley seat -- the new 22nd District. Former Fresno City Councilmember Chris Mathys said he decided to run because of Valadao's impeachment vote, but Trump has not gotten involved in the race.\n\nGOP Rep. Young Kim confronted strong competition from her right flank in the newly drawn 40th District in Orange County from Marine veteran Greg Raths, another Trump loyalist.\n\nOn the flip side, Democrats hope to use GOP Rep. Mike Garcia's ties to Trump against him in California's 27th District after redistricting made his northern Los Angeles County seat more Democratic. (Garcia voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.) Former state Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat, will advance to a runoff in the district with Garcia, CNN projected.\n\nIowa Democrats delivered an upset on Tuesday night by rejecting a onetime star in the party, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, in her bid to take on veteran GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley in November.\n\nFollowing Finkenauer's recent blunder -- where she almost failed to qualify for the ballot when a judge found that she had not met the signature requirements -- as well as her loss two years ago to Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, Democrats in the Hawkeye State went in a different direction. They chose retired Navy Adm. Mike Franken to go up against Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, who will win his party's primary as he seeks an eighth term, CNN projected.\n\nFinkenauer served for one term in Congress after she won a district in 2018 that former President Donald Trump had carried two years earlier. At that time, she was the second-youngest woman ever elected to Congress, at the age of 29.\n\nElsewhere in Iowa, one of the most competitive races is in the 3rd District, where Rep. Cindy Axne, the only Democrat in the congressional delegation, hopes to hold her seat in a district that Trump would have won by less than half a point. CNN projected that state Sen. Zach Nunn, an Air Force veteran, will win the Republican primary in the Des Moines-area district.\n\nThe other two competitive House races in Iowa are set. GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will face Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan in the new 1st District. In the 2nd District, Hinson will face Democratic state Sen. Liz Mathis, who is also a former local TV news anchor.\n\nThere were also several high-profile congressional races in New Jersey. In the state's 7th District, a battleground that became more Republican in redistricting, CNN projected that Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski and Republican Tom Kean Jr., the former state Senate minority leader and son of former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, will face off in the general election.\n\nIn the 8th District in northern New Jersey, Democrat Rob Menendez Jr., son of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, will win the Democratic primary, CNN projects, as he runs for the seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Albio Sires.\n\nGOP Rep. Chris Smith, who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, fended off an array of primary challengers in the 4th District in central New Jersey, including Mike Crispi, a talk show host endorsed by Trump allies such as Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani.\n\nIn Montana, Trump backed his former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke -- despite his history of controversy -- as the candidate attempts to return to Congress . The state won a second congressional seat following the 2020 census results. Zinke faced four other candidates in the GOP primary, including former state Sen. Al Olszewski and pastor Mary Todd, as questions swirl about Zinke's residency\n\nIn South Dakota, Rep. Dusty Johnson will win the GOP primary for the state's only congressional seat, CNN projected. He faced a primary challenge after voting to certify the 2020 presidential election results. CNN also projected that South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem , a potential 2024 contender, will defeat her primary challenger, state Rep. Steven Haugaard, who had accused her of being insufficiently conservative and spending too much time as governor tending to her ambitions for higher office.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments.", "authors": ["Maeve Reston"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_4", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2022/01/10/irs-allowing-you-to-file-taxes-starting-jan-24/9163934002/", "title": "IRS: 2022 tax season set to begin 2 weeks early on Jan. 24", "text": "Associated Press\n\nWASHINGTON – This year’s tax filing season will begin on Jan. 24, 17 days earlier than last year, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday.\n\nThe IRS is warning that a resurgence of COVID-19 infections on top of less funding authorization from Congress than the Biden administration had requested could make this filing season particularly challenging.\n\n“The pandemic continues to create challenges, but the IRS reminds people there are important steps they can take to help ensure their tax return and refund don’t face processing delays,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said.\n\nAvoiding a paper tax return will be more important than ever this year to avert processing delays, Rettig said. He urged taxpayers to file their returns electronically and to get their refunds by direct deposit.\n\n► Want to file your tax return for free? TurboTax opts out of major program\n\nIt is also important for taxpayers who received a COVID-19 relief Economic Impact Payment last year or who got an advance Child Tax Credit payment to make sure they report the correct amount on their tax returns to avoid processing delays, Rettig said.\n\nThe IRS will send letters to recipients of the impact payments and the advance Child Tax Credit payments and taxpayers can also check for the amounts they received on the website IRS.gov.\n\nThe deadline for tax returns to be filed is Monday, April 18 this year, three days later than the normal April 15 deadline for filing taxes. The later date is a result of the Emancipation Holiday in the District of Columbia. By law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone the same way federal holidays do.\n\n► The Daily Money: Get our latest personal finance stories in your inbox\n\n► 'Questionable' tax refunds: How Ryan LLC helps companies get rich", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/12/stimulus-checks-irs-says-payments-start-hitting-bank-accounts-weekend/4674379001/", "title": "COVID relief checks: IRS says stimulus will hit accounts this weekend", "text": "The third round of stimulus checks will start hitting bank accounts for eligible Americans as soon as this weekend, the IRS said late Friday.\n\n“Following approval of the American Rescue Plan Act, the first batch of payments will be sent by direct deposit, which some recipients will start receiving as early as this weekend, and with more receiving this coming week,” the IRS said in a statement.\n\nIn fact, the payments have already arrived for some people just one day after President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law.\n\nIn the coming weeks, more batches of payments will be sent via direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card, according to the agency. Some people may see the direct deposit payments as “pending” or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of March 17, the IRS added.\n\nFrom stimulus checks to Tax Day 2021:Answers to your questions about IRS changes, COVID relief and more\n\nSave better, spend better:Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nIs the stock market boom helping you? In the year of COVID-19, who has really benefited from the stock market boom?\n\nThe IRS announcement confirms what the Biden administration had said Thursday that people would start seeing direct deposit of the checks as soon as this weekend.\n\nSocial Security and other federal beneficiaries will generally receive this third payment the same way as their regular benefits, the IRS said. A payment date for this group is expected to be announced soon.\n\nOn Saturday, the IRS updated the \"Get My Payment\" tool on IRS.gov, which allows people to check the status of their payment. The IRS had originally said the tool would be updated on Monday.\n\nThe third round of Economic Impact Payments will be based on a taxpayer’s latest processed tax return from either 2020 or 2019. That includes anyone who used the IRS non-filers tool last year, or submitted a special simplified tax return. If the IRS received and processed a taxpayer’s 2020 return, the agency will make the calculation based on that return instead.\n\nFor those who received the first two stimulus checks, but didn’t receive a payment via direct deposit, they will receive a check or a prepaid debit card.\n\nWho gets a third stimulus check?:Your COVID-19 relief questions, answered\n\nUnemployment taxes:Jobless Americans get a tax waiver of up to $10,200 on unemployment benefits\n\nThe payments would amount to $1,400 for a single person or $2,800 for a married couple filing jointly, plus an additional $1,400 for each dependent child. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full payments, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000. Payments would decline for incomes above those thresholds, phasing out above $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.\n\nThe third stimulus payment isn’t restricted to children under 17 like the first two rounds. Eligible families will get a $1,400 payment per qualifying dependent claimed on their tax return, including college students, adults with disabilities, parents and grandparents.\n\nUnder the American Rescue Plan relief package, the third stimulus check can’t be offset to pay past-due federal debts or back taxes.\n\nWells Fargo: Stimulus payments still days away\n\nWhile some people have reported on social media that they have been notified that their stimulus payment is a pending deposit in their bank or credit union account, others have taken to Twitter wanting to know their status.\n\nWells Fargo was trending on Twitter Saturday after a tweet the banking giant sent out late Friday. “Customers who are eligible to receive direct deposit of their stimulus payment may expect it as soon as March 17, 2021,” Wells Fargo tweeted.\n\nStill, some bank customers complained on what they saw as a delay and asked why competitor banks and credit unions customers were getting their payments earlier.\n\n“Wells Fargo will process all of the direct deposits according to the effective date provided by the U.S. Treasury,” the bank tweeted and directed consumers to check their status using the IRS Get My Payment tool, which is scheduled to be updated Monday.\n\nH&R Block also said March 17 is the day the IRS has told them most people will receive payments.\n\nContributing: Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/22/check-my-stimulus-check-2021-irs-third-covid-payment-update/4801162001/", "title": "IRS says more stimulus checks on the way: But when will seniors ...", "text": "More stimulus checks are on the way through direct deposit and the mail.\n\nThe Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury said Monday that the next batch of Economic Impact Payments will be issued this week with many coming as paper checks or prepaid debit cards. Some direct deposits began processing Friday with an official pay date of Wednesday, March 24.\n\nAdditional payments are expected to be released on a weekly basis going forward, the IRS said in a news release.\n\n“The IRS continues to send the third round of stimulus payments in record time,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. “Since this new set of payments will include more mailed payments, we urge people to carefully watch their mail for a check or debit card in the coming weeks.”\n\nThe checks' arrival comes amid a recovering economy. Many Americans are eager for the cash, either to make up for income lost during the COVID pandemic, or to spend on dining out, travel, and, in some cases, to invest in a booming stock market.\n\nWaiting for the herd:Many Americans won't eat out or fly until most people are immune to COVID-19\n\nGrape-Nuts shortage is over:Cereal brand to reimburse consumers who paid inflated prices during COVID shortage\n\nIf your first two stimulus checks came as paper checks, it is possible you will get a direct deposit this time.\n\n\"The vast majority of taxpayers receiving EIPs will receive it by direct deposit. In addition, the IRS and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service leveraged data in their systems to convert many payments to direct deposits that otherwise would have been sent as paper checks or debit cards,\" the Treasury said in a news release. \"This accelerated the disbursement of these payments by weeks.\"\n\nLast week, the IRS said it had sent out coronavirus relief checks to more than 90 million Americans under the initial round of payments made under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.\n\nFrom stimulus checks to Tax Day 2021:Answers to your questions about IRS changes, COVID relief and more\n\nWork from home or always working? Remote workdays during COVID-19 are longer thanks to technology\n\nGet updates on the status of your next stimulus payment using the IRS \"Get My Payment\" tool.\n\nBefore you start entering your information hourly, the IRS says the tool “updates once per day, usually overnight” and that people should not call the IRS. \"Our phone assistors don't have information beyond what's available on IRS.gov,” the agency says.\n\nThe third round of Economic Impact Payments will be based on a taxpayer’s latest processed tax return from either 2020 or 2019. That includes anyone who used the IRS non-filers tool last year, or submitted a special simplified tax return.\n\nSocial Security and other federal beneficiaries will generally receive this third payment the same way as their regular benefits, the IRS said. But a date hasn’t been announced yet for when payments are expected for individuals who receive benefits but didn’t file taxes in 2019 or 2020 and also didn’t use the IRS’s Non-Filer tool.\n\nOn updated details about the third stimulus payments, the IRS said again Monday that updates on the timing of \"payments for federal beneficiaries, including non-filing beneficiaries with a Direct Express card, is expected soon.\"\n\nHow to use IRS 'Get My Payment'\n\nThe \"Get My Payment\" tool is available at www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment. To use it, you'll need to enter your full Social Security number or tax ID number, date of birth, street address and ZIP code.\n\nFor those who are eligible, the tool will show a \"Payment Status\" of when the payment has been issued and the payment date for direct deposit or mail, according to the IRS' frequently asked questions.\n\nNot everyone who is eligible will have a payment date under \"Payment Status\" when they log in initially, the IRS said. According to the agency, the tool will be updated when the payment date is known.\n\nSave better, spend better:Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nFrom chef to carpenter:How a children's furniture maker in Brooklyn found a growing market during the pandemic\n\n'Payment Status Not Available' or 'Need More Information'\n\nSome will get a message that says \"Payment Status Not Available.\"\n\n\"If you get this message, either we have not yet processed your payment, or you are not eligible for a payment,\" the IRS said. \"We will continue to send the 2021 Economic Impact Payment to eligible individuals throughout 2021.\"\n\nAnd others will get a \"Need More Information\" message when using the tool if the payment was returned to the IRS because the post office was unable to deliver it for another reason.\n\nIf your address has changed the IRS says the easiest way to update is to \"file your 2020 tax return with your current address, if you haven’t already done so. Once we receive your current address, we will reissue your payment.\"\n\nWhen do taxes need to be filed in 2021?:IRS tax deadline changes with income taxes and payments due May 17 to give taxpayers more time amid COVID-19\n\nCOVID-19 relief payments are going to the wrong accounts:Stimulus checks going to wrong bank accounts for some Americans\n\nContributing: Jessica Menton, USA TODAY\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/success/irs-tax-letters-suspended/index.html", "title": "IRS to temporarily stop sending many taxpayer notices - CNN", "text": "Imagine having filed and paid your taxes last year, then months later you get a letter in the mail from the IRS saying you didn't.\n\nThat's what's happening to many taxpayers this year thanks to automated notices being sent by the IRS.\n\nBut if you got one, don't panic. There's a fair chance the IRS simply hasn't seen what you already sent in. That's because it's dealing with a mountain of returns and correspondence that has built up over the past two years. During that time, the agency was called on to deliver several rounds of economic impact payments and other financial Covid-19 relief , while trying to protect its own workforce from Covid.\n\nThe good news is thatyou're not likely to get another notice for awhile.The IRS announced this week that it will temporarily suspend issuing more than a dozen different types of automated notices indicating balances due, unfiled returns and other deficiencies so that it can work through its pandemic-induced backlog. [Here is the list of notices being suspended.]\n\nAutomatic notices typically require you to respond -- for example, by filing a return, making a payment, providing requested information or explaining why the notice is inaccurate.\n\nBut the IRS is too busy at the moment to respond in a reasonable amount of time.\n\nLast year, the agency took an average of 199 days to process 6.2 million responses from filers to IRS-proposed adjustments on their returns, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate\n\nTax preparer and enrolled agent Donna Byrne herself got a notice asserting she hadn't filed her 2019 tax return, even though she did, she said. \"It drives you nuts, because you know you did stuff.\"\n\nAnd trying to reach an IRS representative by phone to address a matter can feel futile: The agency has been getting 1,500 calls per second, according to a recent IRS letter to lawmakers.\n\nThis week's announcement is a good first step but more still needs to be done, according to the American Institute of CPAs. The AICPA is part of a coalition of tax professional associations that has been urging the IRS to implement four short-term recommendations to provide relief for tax filers this year, of which notice suspension is one.\n\n\"We are encouraged by recent actions taken by the IRS to suspend more automated notices and pleased to know that the IRS is listening and acting. Taxpayers, practitioners and IRS will benefit from reducing unnecessary contact, such as erroneous notices or warnings of levy, and provide much-needed relief during an already stressful and overwhelming tax season,\" the AICPA said in a statement Thursday.\n\nWhat to do if you already got an automated notice\n\nThe IRS did not provide an estimate of how many tax filers may have already received the automated notices in the past few months. But it did note that some notices may still be on their way to tax filers and may be received over the next few weeks.\n\nIf you already have received a notice or soon get one, \"Generally, there is no need to call or respond to the notice as the IRS continues to process prior year tax returns as quickly as possible,\" the agency said in a statement. That is, unless you or your tax preparer think the information in the notice is accurate. In that case, the IRS said, \"act to rectify the situation for the well-being of the taxpayer.\"\n\nBut Edward Karl, AICPA's vice president of taxation, recommends you respond in either case. The letter should indicate where to send your response.\n\nOtherwise, he said, \"you could continue to get additional notices when they turn the [automatic notification] machine back on. And you want to make sure you try to stop it as soon as possible.\"\n\nHere's why, Karl said: At some point, if the assertion is you owe more in tax and penalties and IRS records show you haven't responded at all, it could escalate to the point where the agency can garnish money from your wages or bank account.\n\nCorrection: The original version of this article incorrectly stated the reason Byrne got an IRS notice.", "authors": ["Jeanne Sahadi", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/02/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2022/01/10/irs-2021-tax-returns/6510096001/", "title": "IRS will begin processing 2021 tax returns as soon as Jan. 24", "text": "Early tax filers will get a chance now to e-file their 2021 tax returns as soon as Jan. 24.\n\nThe Internal Revenue Service announced Monday that it will begin accepting and processing tax returns in two weeks.\n\nThat's earlier than the delayed start of Feb. 12 last year when the IRS needed extra time for many pandemic-related reasons, including being able to program its systems to reflect new tax rules that were signed into law in late December 2020.\n\nThe Jan. 24 kickoff puts the IRS back on a more normal track. In 2020, for example, the IRS began processing 2019 tax returns on Jan. 27.\n\nWhile people file early to get their refund money more quickly, it's important to note why some tax refund money won't arrive in just a few weeks.\n\nSome early filers won't get refunds until mid-February\n\nBy law, the IRS cannot issue a refund involving the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February, even though returns can be filed beginning Jan. 24.\n\nThe law provides this additional time to help the IRS stop fraudulent refunds from being issued.\n\nIRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement Monday that the pandemic continues to create challenges. But he stressed that taxpayers can take steps to keep returns moving more smoothly.\n\n\"Filing electronically with direct deposit and avoiding a paper tax return is more important than ever this year,\" Rettig said.\n\nTaxpayers also can avoid holdups in getting their tax refunds by not moving too hastily if they received stimulus money and advance payments for the child tax credit in 2021.\n\n\"We urge extra attention to those who received an Economic Impact Payment or an advance child tax credit last year. People should make sure they report the correct amount on their tax return to avoid delays,” Rettig said.\n\nWhile you can file early, tax experts warn, it's best to wait until later in the season if you do not have all the information you need to file an accurate return.\n\nSome who don't normally file returns need to file\n\nLike last year, the IRS said, some individuals will need to file tax returns even though they are not required to file because of a low income. They would need to file to claim a \"Recovery Rebate Credit\" to receive the tax credit from the 2021 stimulus payments or reconcile advance payments of the child tax credit.\n\nMore:Want to file your tax return for free? TurboTax opts out of major program\n\nMore:Special tax break for charitable donations packs extra incentive for giving\n\nMany tax preparation software sites and offices are already up and running even though the IRS won't accept e-filed returns until later in January. The prepared returns will be electronically submitted to the IRS when filing season officially begins.\n\nThe deadline for federal income tax returns is April 18. (Those who live in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19 because of the Patriots Day holiday in those states.)\n\nLast year, the average income tax refund was $2,827 as of May 21, according to IRS data.\n\nThe IRS issued 95.6 million refunds and a total refund amount of $270.3 billion. The tax deadline was extended last year to May 17.\n\nWhat's the official timetable for refunds?\n\nMost taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically if they choose direct deposit and there are no issues with their tax return, according to the IRS.\n\nSome tax filers are still complaining that they did not receive their refund yet from federal returns filed last year.\n\nRettig noted that IRS employees continue to work hard on critical areas affected by the pandemic, including processing of tax returns from last year.\n\nLast filing season, COVID-era tax changes and pandemic challenges drove up calls. The IRS phone systems received more than 145 million calls from Jan. 1, 2021, though May 17, 2021. That was more than four times the calls than in an average year, the IRS said. Taxpayers are encouraged to go to IRS.gov first.\n\nAs of Dec. 3, the IRS has processed nearly 169 million tax returns. All paper and electronic individual 2020 refund returns received prior to April 2021 have been processed, the IRS said, if the return had no errors or did not require further review.\n\nTaxpayers generally will not need to wait for their 2020 return to be fully processed to file their 2021 tax returns and can file when they are ready.\n\nBut taxpayers should also realize that a stressed IRS system — and ongoing challenges relating to the spread of the omicron variant — are likely to take a toll on this year's tax season.\n\n“In many areas, we are unable to deliver the amount of service and enforcement that our taxpayers and tax system deserves and needs,\" Rettig said.\n\n\"This is frustrating for taxpayers, for IRS employees and for me,” Rettig said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/five-things-june-16-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 16: Interest rates, Covid, January 6, Buffalo ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Major retailers are facing a backlash for selling themed products in an attempt to monetize Juneteenth , the upcoming federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Inclusion experts say \"tone deaf\" marketing campaigns -- including Walmart's Juneteenth ice cream and Dollar Tree's Pan African-themed plates and napkins -- promote stereotypes and often fail to provide any historical context.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Interest rates\n\nThe Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday in an aggressive move to tackle inflation. It's the biggest increase in 28 years and will affect millions of American businesses and households by pushing up the cost of borrowing for homes, cars and other loans. Many consumers who are already concerned about the soaring cost of living will now face higher mortgage rates that will make it harder to afford homes. However, that weaker demand could cool off prices in the future. The goal of the Fed's interest rate hikes is to get inflation under control while keeping the job market recovery intact, but experts say the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and Covid-19 could impact that progress.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nCovid-19 vaccines could be available for children as young as 6 months as early as next week, according to the White House. FDA vaccine advisers voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for emergency use in the youngest children. The FDA, which typically follows the committee's decisions, is expected to vote on the authorization this weekend. Children younger than five are the only age group not currently eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. About 17 million kids will become eligible for vaccines once they're authorized for this age group. Separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving treatment.\n\n3. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol will use its third hearing today to make the case that then-President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on his vice president to overturn the 2020 presidential election \"directly contributed\" to the violence on January 6, 2021, according to committee aides. The hearing, aides said, will also reveal new materials about then-Vice President Mike Pence's movements on January 6, including his whereabouts and what he was doing when rioters breached the Capitol. This comes as Republican candidates across the country are running and winning primaries on Trump's false assertion that he won the election -- despite the fact such claims have been dismissed by former members of his administration testifying under oath.\n\nJUST WATCHED Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence 01:30\n\n4. Buffalo shooting\n\nThe suspect in the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket last month that killed 10 people faces multiple federal hate crime charges carrying the potential of the death penalty, the US Justice Department said Wednesday. The 18-year-old suspect is accused of shooting 13 people at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14. Eleven were Black and two were White, Buffalo police said. During a search of the gunman's home, federal authorities found a laptop with a document containing a detailed plan of the attack he had allegedly been planning for years, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities believe he visited the store multiple times, including the day before the attack and again, hours before he allegedly fired about 60 shots.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story 03:17\n\n5. Baby formula\n\nIn a move to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, the Biden administration announced it is shipping 44,000 pounds of specialty formula from Switzerland to the US today. The supply \"will be available primarily through a distribution pipeline serving hospitals, home health companies, and WIC programs around the US,\" the White House said. But even as the government airlifts tons of formula in from other countries, getting regular supplies back to retailers could take weeks, with some estimates from stakeholders that there might not be relief until mid-July. Meanwhile, Abbott Nutrition -- the baby formula manufacturer that once produced a significant amount of the powdered formula sold in the US -- is now experiencing more delays after flooding at its Michigan plant.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage 02:12\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nWatch Hong Kong's iconic floating restaurant get towed away\n\nGenerations of locals and tourists will miss this iconic attraction , billed as the world's biggest floating restaurant. No one knows where it will end up next...\n\nA first look at Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie' has sent the internet into a frenzy\n\nWho could play a better tanned and toned Ken doll than Ryan Gosling ? (That's a trick question... there is literally no one more perfect for this role.)\n\nFive guys take the same photo for 40 years\n\nThis group of friends took pictures in the same pose from 1982 to 2022. Check out their cool tradition\n\n'Floating' airplane cabin could be the future of travel\n\nA futuristic cabin concept with \" floating furniture \" recently won a prestigious aviation award.\n\nReal estate job cuts: Redfin and Compass announce layoffs\n\nMortgage rates are climbing, home sales are dropping and some of the largest real estate companies are announcing layoffs\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2.9 million\n\nThat's how many vehicles Ford is recalling due to issues that could prevent certain models from shifting into the correct gear, which might cause them to move in unintended directions. The National Highway Safety Administration says it has six reports of property damage and four reports of injuries potentially related to the problem. The vehicles involved are the model year 2013 to 2019 Escape, the 2013-2018 C-Max, 2013-2016 Fusion and the 2013-2021 Transit Connect.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The security support from the United States is unprecedented. It brings us closer to a common victory over the Russian aggressor.\"\n\n-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, thanking President Biden on Wednesday for providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The latest weapons package comes as Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West to send additional heavy weaponry as the war grinds on. A Pentagon spokesman said the US has now committed more than $5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. Separately, the leaders of France, Germany and Italy arrived in Kyiv today, where they are expected to meet with Zelensky and express \"a message of European unity.\"\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Record heat continues across much of the East Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Record heat continues across much of the East 01:44\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nThe California Roll Was Invented in Canada", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/16/obama-new-irs-commisioner/2165901/", "title": "Second IRS official resigns after scandal", "text": "Aamer Madhani and Gregory Korte\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nIRS commissioner of tax-exempt entities division to retire%2C after acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller fired\n\nAgency officials had targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny\n\nPresident taps a trusted budget official%2C Daniel Werfel%2C to head IRS through September\n\nWASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday he is naming a trusted White House budget official, Daniel Werfel, to serve as his new acting IRS commissioner.\n\nThe appointment of Werfel comes as a second top IRS official announced Thursday that he is stepping down in the aftermath of revelations that the agency targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.\n\nJoseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax-exempt and government entities division, will retire on June 3, according to an IRS statement. Grant joined the IRS in August 2005 and became the deputy commissioner of the tax exempt division in 2007. He became the second senior IRS official in as many days to offer his resignation.\n\nGrant had only be elevated to the position of commissioner of the division last week -- two days before the agency confirmed the targeting of Tea Party groups and conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.\n\nMeanwhile, Obama announced that the controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Werfel, will move into the job of acting IRS commissioner next week, replacing Steven Miller.\n\n\"Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill,\" Obama said in a statement. \"The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time.\"\n\nObama announced Wednesday that he'd accepted Miller's resignation, saying the agency needed a change in leadership.\n\nMiller will face questions Friday when he appears before the House Ways and Means Committee, where lawmakers plan to ask him why he didn't inform Congress about the IRS's treatment of Tea Party groups last year -- even under direct questioning.\n\nCommittee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Thursday, \"It seems pretty clear that he was aware of this ongoing targeting. And he didn't tell Congress.\"\n\nAnd Camp said the inquiries won't stop with Tea Party groups, whose applications for tax-exempt status were delayed simply by virtue of their group name. Camp also wants to know if pro-Israel groups and individual donors to conservative causes were also targeted for invasive questioning and audits.\n\nWerfel, 42, will start the job Wednesday and has agreed to serve in the position through September.\n\nWerfel, who is known around the White House as Danny, will lead the IRS efforts to restore its reputation that has taken a beating since it was made public that the organization was targeting conservative groups.\n\nHe has served in a number of other positions at OMB, including deputy controller, chief of financial integrity and as a policy analyst. He also served during the George W. Bush administration as a member of the Federal Accounting and Standards Advisory Board.\n\nTreasury Secretary Jack Lew, who has known Werfel for more than 15 years, said Werfel has the makeup to help the agency get through a difficult period.\n\n\"He is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably served presidents of both parties. Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for -- and excelling at -- tough management assignments,\" Lew said in a statement.\n\nSeparately, Obama on Thursday dismissed the idea of appointing a special counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. He noted that the Treasury Department's inspector general is expected to recommend an investigation and the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation. The Senate Finance Committee is also launching an investigation into the IRS' actions.\n\n\"Between those investigations, I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it,\" Obama said at a joint news conference with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\n\nFollow @aamerismad and @gregorykorte on Twitter.\n\n\n\n", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/05/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/us/five-things-january-24-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for Jan. 24: Covid, Ukraine, Congress, Capitol riot ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Bitcoin is off to a dismal start in the new year, tumbling almost 50% since hitting a record high of $68,990 in November. Some countries are even considering banning cryptocurrencies entirely to curb their growing popularity.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can also get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Coronavirus\n\nThe Biden administration is expected to begin distributing 400 million free N95 masks to Americans this week, the latest federal step aimed at reining in the spread of Covid-19. The masks -- which are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile -- will be made available at a number of local pharmacies and community health centers . A White House official described the distribution as \"the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history.\" The huge allotment amounts to more than half of the 750 million N95 masks currently stored in the reserve, a figure that tripled over the last year as the administration sought to boost reserves. The move comes as the US grapples with an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.\n\n2. Ukraine\n\nThe US is amplifying calls for Russia to cease its aggressive actions along the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 troops have been amassed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned yesterday that there would be a severe response by the US and its allies if \" a single additional Russian force \" enters Ukraine in an aggressive way. In preparation for a possible invasion, the US sent Ukraine a second weapons supply shipment of close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. Some political leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are urging the US and its allies to penalize Moscow with sanctions now before any lives are lost. The US, however, has shown unwillingness to punish Russia preemptively. The Biden administration and its NATO allies are instead focused on bolstering troop levels in the region to support Eastern European and Baltic allies.\n\nJUST WATCHED Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions 09:12\n\n3. Congress\n\nThe Arizona Democratic Party announced over the weekend that it has formally censured Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she voted to maintain the Senate's filibuster rules, effectively blocking Democrats' voting legislation, a key priority for the party. The symbolic gesture from Arizona Democrats adds to the mounting pressure Sinema is facing from those in her state who helped her flip a Senate seat in 2018. Sinema -- who started her political career as a progressive -- has been a target on the left during Biden's administration for her stances. Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both centrists, were the only two Democrats to join all Republicans last week in voting to maintain the Senate's 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster on legislation\n\nJUST WATCHED 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure 01:45\n\n4. Capitol Riot\n\nThe House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has been having conversations with former Attorney General William Barr . Barr, a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump, pushed the administration's \"law and order\" message, but resigned in December 2020 after rebuking Trump's false claims about widespread election fraud. Separately, Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, acknowledged late last week that he was part of the effort to prop up so-called \"alternate electors\" to support Trump in key states. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani supervised that effort, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme . It involved helping pro-Trump electors access state Capitol buildings, drafting language for fake electoral certificates to send to the federal government, and finding replacements for electors who refused to go along with the plot.\n\nJUST WATCHED January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr 01:35\n\n5. Boris Johnson\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure this week over alleged garden parties and Christmas gatherings held at Downing Street while the rest of the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdowns. His approval ratings are plunging and the parliamentary rebellion is growing. This is worrying some parts of his ruling Conservative Party that he is becoming a liability . Adding fuel to the fire, Johnson's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings said he would swear under oath that the Prime Minister was warned about the true nature of one of the parties, but Johnson denied that vehemently. Johnson launched an inquiry into the gatherings and that report is due to come out this week.\n\nJUST WATCHED See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal 02:33\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nNFL Playoff upsets\n\nWas that not the greatest playoff round OF ALL TIME?\n\nNetflix's 'Ozark' begins fourth and final season\n\nGlass ceiling shattered!\n\nMeet the first female captain of the historic USS Constitution in its 224-year history.\n\nMysterious ice formations showed up in Chicago\n\nHave you ever seen ice pancakes ? They kind of crepe me out.\n\nIndian couple plan country's 'first metaverse marriage'\n\nHAPPENING LATER\n\nThe three former police officers who helped Derek Chauvin restrain George Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020 are set to stand trial in a federal courtroom later today for violating Floyd's civil rights. The three officers previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, while Chauvin admitted guilt in December as part of a plea deal.\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nThierry Mugler, has died. Iconic French fashion designer,has died. He was 73 . Mugler, who was born in Strasbourg, France, launched his eponymous label in 1974. He was known for his broad-shouldered, avant-garde designs. The designer's brand said they will remember their founder as a \"visionary\" who \"empowered people around the world to be bolder and dream bigger every day.\"\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n11\n\nThat's how many hours a stowaway spent in the nose wheel of a cargo plane that flew from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport yesterday. Due to the extremely cold flying conditions, Dutch officials were surprised the stowaway was found alive. Once the stowaway was revived and stabilized, they said they would work to determine his status, if he indeed is looking for asylum.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The IOC [International Olympic Committee] deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again.\"\n\nFormer NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face --, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face unique challenges during the Beijing Winter Olympics next month. It is currently unclear how the host country may censor journalists and how they will allow reporters to cover events in and around the games.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes 01:57\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nIt's Monday, and you're going to crush it today!", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/us/five-things-february-17-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for Feb. 17: Ukraine, Covid, Government funding ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) There's one thing we can all agree on -- none of us are pumped up about rising gas prices. But experts are warning that $5 a gallon may soon be the norm for people living on the West Coast. Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day .\n\n(You can also get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Ukraine\n\nRussian forces along Ukraine's borders have increased by about 7,000 troops in recent days, despite claims from Moscow it was pulling back military units. That is according to a senior US administration official, who warned President Vladimir Putin's public openness to diplomacy was a guise. New estimates indicate Russia now has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine. Western leaders have previously expressed skepticism about Moscow's assertion it was sending some troops back to base, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview Wednesday that there is \"a difference between what Russia says and what it does.\" Separately, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this weekend to discuss new ways the US and allies can possibly deter Russia from an invasion.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nThe US government plans to make high-quality masks available for kids , a senior adviser to the White House told CNN yesterday. The move appears to be an extension of the Biden administration's ongoing effort to distribute 400 million free N95 masks from the Strategic National Stockpile for the public to access at pharmacies and community health centers nationwide. About 230 million of those masks have already been delivered to those locations. Last month, the federal government began distribution of 1 billion free Covid-19 tests directly to households. More than 50 million households have already received their tests , and millions more are on the way, officials said.\n\nJUST WATCHED WH Covid-19 adviser: Government will make high-quality masks for kids Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH WH Covid-19 adviser: Government will make high-quality masks for kids 01:34\n\n3. Government Shutdown\n\nUS lawmakers have less than two days to pass a short-term funding extension to avoid a government shutdown on Friday . It remains unclear when the Senate will vote on the continuing resolution, which would keep the government open by extending funding through March 11. Discussions about the measure are being delayed by some Republicans who are making demands tied to the vote. A group of six conservative senators specifically said they would oppose the expedited passage of the resolution unless they get a vote to defund the remaining vaccine mandates the Biden administration imposed. Complicating matters further, some Democrats are absent due to personal and family reasons, causing concern the party may be short of votes needed to defeat the Republican amendments.\n\nJUST WATCHED What a government shutdown could mean for you Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What a government shutdown could mean for you 00:56\n\n4. Brazil\n\nAt least 94 people have died in the Brazilian mountain city of Petropolis after heavy rains triggered landslides that washed out streets, swept away cars and buried homes, local officials said yesterday. The city, located in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, had more rain in one afternoon than the historical average for the entire month of February, the Civil Defense of Rio said. The department also declared a state of public calamity. More people are missing, but it's unclear how many at this time, Rio officials said. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently on a trip to Russia, said he had spoken to ministers and asked for \"immediate assistance\" to be sent to the victims.\n\nJUST WATCHED Terrifying scene as floodwater carries a car after torrential rain Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Terrifying scene as floodwater carries a car after torrential rain 01:55\n\n5. No-fly list\n\nSeveral major US airlines are asking the federal government to create a coordinated \"no-fly list\" for violent and disruptive passengers , but their request is being met by pushback from GOP lawmakers. A group of Republican senators is arguing the mandate would seemingly equate unruly passengers to terrorists \"who seek to actively take the lives of Americans and perpetrate attacks on the homeland,\" the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland this week. While airlines may ban an unruly passenger from their own flights, competition rules mean that information is not shared with other carriers, so unruly individuals can easily fly on different carriers after violent or disruptive incidents. Nearly 500 unruly passenger incidents have been reported in the first six weeks of 2022, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, and 80 incidents have been referred to the Justice Department to consider criminal prosecution.\n\nJUST WATCHED An airline is asking for an unruly passengers no-fly list. See Buttigieg's response Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH An airline is asking for an unruly passengers no-fly list. See Buttigieg's response 01:52\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nDisney plans to build residential neighborhoods across the US\n\nNASA's newest explorer shared its very first images\n\nMost remote workers don't want to go back to the office\n\nHome sweet office! Nearly 60% of US workers want to continue working from home when the pandemic is over.\n\nAMC movie theaters wants to sell its popcorn at retail stores\n\nNot to be corny, but I'm glad this idea popped into their minds ... movies at home would be so much butter with this!\n\nUber now lets you see how many 1-star ratings you received from drivers\n\nDon't be down if you have a couple of low ratings . There's always next ride!\n\nOLYMPICS UPDATE\n\nRussian figure skater Kamila Valieva is expected to take to the ice today for her free skate . The 15-year-old is at the center of a doping scandal as officials work to determine whether her team broke any rules following her positive drug test.\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n$53 billion\n\nThat's how much revenue America's gambling industry rolled in last year. That figure breaks the previous record from 2019 by more than 20%, making 2021 the highest-grossing year eve r. Despite some restrictions related to Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, gambling surged mainly due to massive increases in sports betting, online gambling and traditional gaming at casinos.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Big Tech has brazenly failed children and betrayed its trust, putting profits above safety.\"\n\n-- Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, pushing for , pushing for a new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act , which aims to curb the potentially harmful impacts of social media on young people. The bipartisan legislation proposes tech companies would have to provide settings for families to protect their kids from harmful content, and those settings would have to be enabled by default. The legislation, would also force social media companies to publish annual third-party audits outlining the risks of their platforms for minors.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Over 115 million are under wind alerts Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Over 115 million are under wind alerts 03:16\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nBali Paradise", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/20/taxes-2020-irs-delay-april-15-tax-filing-deadline-july-15/2883840001/", "title": "Taxes 2020: IRS to delay April 15 tax filing deadline to July 15", "text": "The Trump administration will push the income tax filing deadline to July 15 from April 15, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday in a tweet.\n\nMnuchin said that at President Donald Trump’s direction “we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”\n\nEarlier this week, the IRS had deferred the payment deadline to July 15 but had left the April 15 filing deadline in place.\n\nIf you’re getting a refund, experts suggest still filing as soon as possible.\n\n\"For many taxpayers, this is the largest check that they’ll receive this year, so I would encourage them to file now because the IRS still expects to process tax refunds,\" says Lisa Greene-Lewis, a certified public accountant at TurboTax.\n\nHow long should I keep my tax returns?:Answer: It depends\n\nWhat tax deductions and credits can I claim?:Here are 9 overlooked ones that can save you money\n\nAccording to the latest government data available, as of March 13, the IRS has received more than 76 million returns and has issued more than 59.2 million refunds.\n\nThe average refund check was $2,973.\n\nWhile the IRS is reportedly going to increase pressure to have states align with the new federal deadline, it is important for people to check with their local government to make sure they do not miss their obligation in their state.\n\n\"Each state might consider its own relief, but it’s best to assume you still must file and pay any states where taxes are owed by April 15, unless state guidance is issued,\" Dina Pyron, financial services partner and global TaxChat leader at Ernst & Young, said in a note.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/20"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_5", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/entertainment/bill-cosby-civil-case/index.html", "title": "Bill Cosby: Jury finds embattled comedian liable in sexual battery case", "text": "(CNN) A Los Angeles jury found embattled comedian Bill Cosby liable in a civil case brought by Judy Huth, a woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her as a teenager in the 1970s.\n\nThe jury, comprised of eight women and four men, awarded Huth $500,000 in damages. No punitive compensation was awarded.\n\nHuth first filed the case in 2014, claiming sexual battery and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The original filing stated that the incident happened in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old, but the timeline was later revised to 1975, when Huth was 16.\n\nJudy Huth (left) arrives outside the courthouse for the start of her civil trial against actor Bill Cosby, on June 1, 2022 at Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica, California.\n\nThrough his lawyers, Cosby, 84, has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.\n\nIn her complaint, Huth told of meeting Cosby at a park where he was filming a movie. After befriending Huth and a friend, Cosby allegedly invited them to join him at his tennis club. From there, Huth alleged, the comedian invited them to a house where he served the young women multiple alcoholic drinks and then took them to the Playboy Mansion.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Cheri Mossburg"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/05/26/marilyn-manson-sexual-assault-lawsuit-former-assistant-dismissed/9939748002/", "title": "Marilyn Manson sexual assault lawsuit from former assistant dismissed", "text": "A judge has dismissed a case from Marilyn Manson's former assistant, who accused the embattled musician of sexual assault, battery and harassment.\n\nIn an order of dismissal obtained by USA TODAY, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern on Wednesday dismissed Ashley Walters' \"entire action\" against the musician, which alleged Manson (whose real name is Brian Warner) used \"his position of power, celebrity and connections to exploit and victimize (her) during her employment\" from August 2010 to October 2011.\n\nIn the dismissal, Stern dismissed the case \"with prejudice,\" which means that Walters will not be able to file the same claims in Los Angeles Superior Court again. Stern said Walters had \"too few facts\" and pleaded \"too late,\" according to reports from CBS News and Deadline.\n\n\"We are deeply disappointed in the court’s decision today. If allowed to stand, this decision would drastically limit the ability of victims of abuse to obtain justice through the legal system,\" Walters' lawyers told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday, adding that the court \"based its decision on the timeliness of Ashley's claims and not the merits.\"\n\nWalters also sent a statement saying she's \"disheartened in the court’s decision\" because of \"the message it sends to other survivors out there trying to balance how they process abuse with arbitrary court deadlines.\"\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to reps for Manson for comment.\n\nAshley Walters vs. Marilyn Manson:Marilyn Manson’s former assistant sues him for sexual assault, battery\n\nWalters originally filed her complaint in May 2021 with details accusing Manson of treating her \"like his property,\" adding that he repeatedly \"offered Walters up to his influential industry friends and associates,\" giving his friends permission to grope, kiss and \"have her.\"\n\nAt the Spike TV Scream Awards in September 2010, Walters alleged Manson pushed her \"onto the lap of an actor,\" who \"proceeded to kiss Walters and keep her on his lap,\" according to the suit. A month later, Warner offered her up to a director, who \"groped\" Walters, \"cornered her and shoved his hand up her skirt while covering her mouth so his date could not hear.\"\n\nSearch:Authorities search Marilyn Manson's home amid allegations of physical, sexual abuse\n\nWarner fired Walters in 2011 after accusing her of \"trying to sabotage his career,\" according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Warner continued to \"threaten her, accused her of stealing artwork from his home, and hacked into her Facebook account.\"\n\nWalters says she decided to come forward with her allegations after being contacted by a group of individuals who have been allegedly victimized by Warner, including actress Esmé Bianco, Evan Rachel Wood and Ashley Morgan Smithline. (Smithline accused the rocker of raping, biting and whipping her during their relationship more than a decade ago.).\n\n'Phoenix Rising':Evan Rachel Wood alleges Marilyn Manson made her drink his blood in new doc\n\nManson moved to dismiss Bianco's case against him, but a judge denied his motion in October, and the case is still proceeding in Central California's District Court.\n\nWood’s HBO documentary \"Phoenix Rising\" released in March focuses on her depiction of a toxic and turbulent relationship with Warner, and how she's attempted to take back the narrative with her advocacy work through The Phoenix Act, which is also the name of the California bill she backed that extended the statute of limitations for domestic felonies.\n\nHBO's 'Phoenix Rising':Evan Rachel Wood, Marilyn Manson and why her antisemitism allegations matter\n\nMore:Marilyn Manson sues Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, fraud amid sex abuse allegations\n\nIn total, more than a dozen women have made allegations of sexual impropriety against Manson, but not all of them have filed lawsuits.\n\nContributing: Cydney Henderson, David Oliver", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/07/17/has-twitters-cancel-culture-gone-too-far/5445804002/", "title": "Has Twitter's cancel culture gone too far?", "text": "The latest celebrity to enter the social discourse surrounding online cancellation: Nick Cannon.\n\nThe comedian’s name trended on Twitter on July 15 after he was fired by ViacomCBS over “hateful speech.” The news added fuel to the debate over whether holding celebrities accountable for their opinions has gone too far.\n\nSome argued that the host of \"Wild 'n Out,\" which airs on VH1 and MTV, should be “canceled,” which often entails boycotting a famous person’s work. Others asked: “What happened to freedom of speech?”\n\nTwitter has become a powerful court of public opinion and \"cancel culture\" plays a role. The phenomenon occurs when people get upset about something that a company or person has done or something they have said. It also can be divisive with opposers saying threats of cancellation stifles free speech.\n\nIt's hard to deny that cancel culture has sparked important conversations and change, such as when #Oscarssowhite trended for the first time. Since then, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has made efforts to diversify its ranks. Twitter also helped elevate the complaints and charges of sexual assault, sexism and unfair treatment of women during the #MeToo movement.\n\nBut the strength of cancel culture can also ravage careers and lives. And there are cases where the people on Twitter don't have all the facts and perhaps took on the role of judge and jury without having an accurate picture of the story behind their ire.\n\nGetting \"canceled\" can mean being removed in many ways. In recent weeks, episodes of \"Live PD\" and \"Cops\" were pulled from the air after George Floyd's death sparked questions surrounding misleading police story lines. Last year, comedian Shane Gillis was fired from \"Saturday Night Live\" after people unearthed old, offensive comments. Others have faced a similar fate.\n\nBut has the backlash gone too far? The answer isn't clear cut, experts say.\n\n“Society is still grappling with what’s considered ‘too far’ on the internet,” said Anne Charity Hudley, the chair of linguistics of African America at the University of California. “Something that can be used for good can also be weaponized. Everything can go too far; even free speech can go too far.”\n\n'Keep this energy up':Black-owned businesses see surge of interest amid racism protests\n\nGoya products boycott\n\nThe internet recently came down hard on Goya Foods after its CEO praised President Donald Trump. People vowed not to support the brand, and the now embattled chief executive called the backlash “suppression of speech.” Others who faced \"cancellation\" include Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute from \"Vanderpump Rules\" and YouTube influencer James Charles.\n\nIn Cannon’s case, the comedian said on Facebook that he was an \"advocate for people's voices to be heard openly, fairly and candidly.\" The post came after ViacomCBS severed ties with the entertainer over an episode of his podcast “Cannon's Class”, where he “promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”\n\nThe cancel culture debate hit a high point this month when Harper’s Magazine published a letter proposing that successful writers and editors felt stifled by a growing public intolerance.\n\nOn the flip side, professionals who specialize in social movements say cancel culture was birthed from groups of people growing tired of others abusing power by controlling the narrative of marginalized communities.\n\n“People have learned over time, and over decades, that sometimes you have to make a little bit of noise on social media in order for people to be held accountable,” said Apryl Alexander, professor of psychology at the University of Denver.\n\nIt’s easy for the cancel culture movement to get wound into a game of false equivalence, with some people calling for justice while others worry about expressing themselves, experts said.\n\n\"Yes, there is freedom of speech and people should be allowed to voice their opinions,\" Alexander said. \"But when they use that voice and it's causing harm, we do need to address the harm.\"\n\nSome of the people who have been on the receiving end of cancellation were charged or convicted of crimes, such as rape and sexual assault, as in the Harvey Weinstein case.\n\nToo big to cancel?\n\nDespite disturbing revelations, sometimes people aren’t ready to let go of their idols.\n\n\"Tonight Show\" host Jimmy Fallon was at the epicenter of digital backlash in March after old photos of him wearing Blackface surfaced. It wasn’t his first racial indiscretion, yet the show remains on the air. Old racist tweets from songstress Camila Cabello surfaced in 2019. As of June, she’s still the face of L'Oreal in commercials. Both issued a public apology.\n\n“That’s one of the most concerning parts, many of these individuals go on living their lives without being truly canceled or held accountable for the things they did or said,” Alexander said.\n\nShort attention spans allow many people to avoid long-term cancellation, experts say. Today’s headline is often forgotten when something scandalous comes out tomorrow. Also, calls to cancel someone can be made by anyone, including people who never supported the entertainer in the first place.\n\nGetting doxed\n\nCancel culture is tethered to other social media occurrences that can cause real harm.\n\nSometimes, when people voice controversial opinions online, they get doxed, or have their private information researched and posted, by a digital vigilante. There are instances where the wrong person’s information was shared, and others where the content was misinterpreted.\n\nIn one case in May, a Santa Monica woman said in an opinion piece published by USA TODAY that her life was threatened by a “social media mob” that misunderstood what was really happening in a 34-second clip. The video showed her holding a power drill in Santa Monica, California, after uprisings there. People on the internet alleged she was posing for an Instagram photo, but in real life, she says she was joking with local volunteer workers.\n\nThere are also elements of cyberbullying that can happen when people are “called out” for their behavior.\n\n\"Cyberbullying is a negative outcome, but it can come from both cancel culture and people trying to oppress others,\" said Alexander of the University of California.\n\nBut it can lead to change, too\n\nCancellation, in most cases, isn't permanent. But widespread calls to boycott or call out people, companies and institutions have led to change that many view as positive.\n\nThink back to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. When activist April Reign sparked the hashtag in 2015, the nominees for the prestigious acting awards visibly lacked diversity. The Academy responded to the outcry by setting inclusion goals, and in 2020 announced that it had more than doubled the number of minority members since 2016.\n\nAnd social media-spun uprisings have contributed to the calls for racial justice in America. When people online point out the issues and provide video proof online, it has led to people being arrested and, sometimes convicted, of crimes or changes to policy.\n\n\"Social media has allowed people to organize more comprehensively and react more quickly,\" Alexander said. \"Changes are happening in terms of police departments, universities and schools looking at their anti-blackness policies. Now, how do we sustain it? That's the next big question.\"\n\nFollow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/26/sport/deshaun-watson-nfl-intl-spt-cmd/index.html", "title": "Deshaun Watson: The NFL says it holds players to account for their ...", "text": "(CNN) It's been months since the Houston Texans agreed to trade embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns , but the furor over the deal -- described by one NFL observer as a case of \"talent trumps trouble\" -- just won't go away.\n\nIn March, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, declined to charge Watson over allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct after determining there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime. The incidents were described as \"stemming from massage therapy sessions,\" according to a statement on the NFL website.\n\nMeanwhile, a second grand jury in Brazoria County, Texas, in March declined to indict Watson after considering evidence in a criminal complaint alleging sexual misconduct, also during a massage therapy session.\n\nHowever, Watson still faces 22 civil complaints from his accusers, many of them alleging sexual assault and misconduct during massage sessions. Two of Watson's accusers appeared on HBO's Real Sports on Tuesday, providing graphic details of what they say happened in the sessions -- and speaking of their shock and revulsion at the news of his signing.\n\n\"It's just like a big screw you,\" Ashley Solis said on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.\"That's what it feels like. That we don't care. He can run and throw, and that's what we care about.\"\n\nWatson has repeatedly denied the accusations of sexual assault and misconduct made against him, and Watson's attorney Rusty Hardin said in a statement \"I believe that any allegation that Deshaun forced a woman to commit a sexual act is completely false.\"\n\nNFL officials were scheduled to meet with Watson last week, as the fallout from his trade continues, according to NFL.com , per NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport. A decision on his potential suspension is looming, but timelines for this remain unclear.\n\nHardin told CNN that Watson met with the NFL for three days. The league has also requested one more day, though the date and location have not yet been determined, added Hardin.\n\n\"I can't give you a timeline,'' NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters in a press conference Tuesday. \"I think we're nearing the end of the investigative period and then at some point this will be handled by our disciplinary officer. And that will happen shortly. And then we'll see where that comes out.''\n\nDeshaun Watson #4 of the Houston Texans calls a play at the line of scrimmage during a game against the Tennessee Titans at NRG Stadium on January 03, 2021 in Houston, Texas.\n\nJournalist Melissa Jacobs, founder and managing editor of 'The Football Girl,' told CNN that after Watson's signing with the Browns, she felt \"disgust, disappointment, I guess, ickiness, but also not surprised at all because we saw the makings of this happening.\"\n\nWatson's five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract from the Browns would be the highest guaranteed money given to an NFL player, according to ESPN. If a player is fully guaranteed, money in a player contract is protected for skill, cap and injury. Cleveland is set to begin organized team activities on May 24.\n\nAt an introductory news conference with the Browns in March, when asked about his off-the-field situation, Watson answered: \"I don't have any regrets. Like I said before, the things that are off the field right now that came up caught me by surprise because I never did anything that these people are alleging.\"\n\nWatson's attorney Rusty Hardin told CNN he couldn't predict the outcome of the civil cases but added: \"We really strongly believe that he didn't do what he's accused of doing.\"\n\n\"I'm struck by the way people have just moved on without recognizing the significance of the law enforcement decision that there was no crime committed,\" he said.\n\nCleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski answers questions from the media during the NFL Scouting Combine on March 2, 2022, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.\n\nBrowns head coach Kevin Stefanski in March defended the decision to trade for Watson, saying, \"I think Deshaun's ready to make a positive impact on this community and I can tell you, just with my time spent with Deshaun in the past few days -- getting to know him and getting to know this person -- I'm looking forward to this community getting to know this person.\"\n\nHowever, some say the trade is hard to stomach given Watson still faces numerous civil suits regarding allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.\n\nOne of the civil suits filed called Watson a \"serial predator,\" and others also filed in April allege he \"assaulted and harassed\" the women by \"exposing himself\" or \"touching (them) with his penis.\" Another additionally alleges Watson tried to make one woman perform oral sex on him.\n\n\"It's not to say that Deshaun Watson should never be allowed to play in the NFL,\" added Jacobs. \"It's just that there's still civil cases ongoing and the NFL investigation is ongoing.\n\n\"So why not let the legal process play out? It's just one of the most in-your-face examples of 'talent trumps trouble' that I feel like the NFL has ever had.\"\n\nTesting the personal conduct policy\n\nWatson remains under investigation by the NFL -- though Commissioner Roger Goodell said there was \"no time frame\" on a decision by a joint disciplinary officer.\n\n\"Obviously, these are serious charges. We're looking at this seriously,\" Goodell told reporters in March.\n\n\"We now have obviously at least resolution from the criminal side of it. Obviously there are still civil charges that are going on. So our investigators hopefully will have access to more information, and that will be helpful obviously in getting to the conclusion of what are the facts and was there a violation of the personal-conduct policy,\" he said.\n\nUnder that policy, Goodell could choose to place a player on the exempt list \"when a player is formally charged with a crime of violence\" or when an NFL investigation \"leads the commissioner to believe that a player may have violated\" the policy.\n\nThe exempt list is a device the NFL can use to place players on paid leave while they are under investigation if it is thought they might have violated the league's personal conduct policy.\n\nWhat is the exempt list? The exempt list is a device the NFL can use to place players on paid leave while they are under investigation if it is thought they might have violated the league's personal conduct policy. Players can also be temporarily placed on the list if a \"violation relating to a crime of violence is suspected but further investigation is required\" to allow the league to conduct its own investigation. According to the NFL's personal conduct code, players found to have engaged in the following behavior will be subject to discipline -- \"even if the conduct does not result in a criminal conviction.\" Behaviors include: Actual or threatened physical violence against another person, including dating violence, domestic violence, child abuse, and other forms of family violence\n\nAssault and/or battery, including sexual assault or other sex offenses\n\nViolent or threatening behavior toward another employee or a third party in any workplace setting\n\nStalking, harassment, or similar forms of intimidation\n\nPlayers can also be temporarily placed on the list if a \"violation relating to a crime of violence is suspected but further investigation is required\" to allow the league to conduct its own investigation.\n\nRunning back Kareem Hunt was placed on the exempt list in 2018 after he was seen on video pushing and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel. He was released by the Kansas City Chiefs shortly after.\n\nThe Browns signed Hunt just months later, despite a league suspension hanging over his head. Weeks later, Hunt was suspended for eight games for violating the NFL personal-conduct policy, stemming from physical altercations at his Cleveland residence in February 2018 and at a resort in Ohio in June.\n\nAt the time of writing, a decision on Watson's playing status has not been made. He would, in theory, be able to play when the season begins in September, though a decision on a potential punishment or suspension is expected soon.\n\nLos Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer looks toward home during the fourth inning of the the team's baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on May 21, 2021, in San Francisco.\n\nA few weeks after Watson was traded to the Browns, another major US sports league showed its commitment to punishing players found to have violated its domestic violence and sexual assault policy. Major League Baseball announced in April it suspended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer for two years (324 championship season games) without pay, for violation of the league's domestic violence and sexual assault policy following an extensive investigation. Bauer has consistently denied the allegations.\n\nIn February, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Bauer would not face criminal charges for the sexual assault accusations.\n\nAs far as the NFL, commentators say the league's and teams' treatment of other players accused of wrongdoing works as a blueprint for how it regards a player's personal conduct.\n\n\"As far as actions off the field and what priorities are, I think that line was drawn a long time ago with any number of people you could point to that were brought back to help teams win games after various levels of transgression,\" Tim Benz, a sports columnist for the Tribune-Review, told CNN Sports.\n\n\"Whether it was Kareem Hunt or Michael Vick, or when Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual misconduct twice and was never actually charged with any crimes, he still got suspended for six games and was brought back and went on to have a career that they just honored him for for an entire year in Pittsburgh.\n\n\"Josh Gordon's another example with their own drug policy, which he violated numerous times over, and every time you turn around, he gets a new job with someone,\" Benz added.\n\nNFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told CNN that when \"players or personnel violate the policies they are held responsible and disciplined. If a player earns his way back to playing by serving a suspension and undergoing mandatory training and evaluations we will consider it,\" adding that that's what happened with Hunt, Vick and Roethlisberger, who had \"no further discipline issues.\"\n\nA \"continuous assault\" on women, rights groups warn\n\nSome women's rights organizations see the Watson case as a continuation of policies and an attitude that are damaging to women.\n\nRosa Beltré, executive director of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, told CNN that Watson's trade was \"disheartening, but it was not a surprise.\"\n\n\"This is a continuous assault, as well as revictimization, and it's been the position of many businesses and organizations,\" Beltré said.\n\nFootball teams' and leagues' behaviors often don't match their public messaging around violence against women, she said.\n\n\"While they can have campaigns , or they could go ahead and have their players give their time, talent, supposedly for a cause, the decisions that they make normally do not walk alongside their talk.\"\n\nShe said that \"over and over again,\" clubs and leagues have shown it is more important to win a championship and sell tickets than to punish players in order to demonstrate the importance of the team's values.\n\n\"So the message that they clearly sent is that once again: money, status, wins are more important than believing, supporting, seeing and recognizing the harm that is done against women by their athletes, by their boards, by their executives.\"\n\nLaura Palumbo, communications director for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, said in a statement to CNN: \"The survivors in this case have been vocal about how damaging it has been to witness the person who they reported for assault and abuse go without consequences and move on to achieve success and celebrated status in their personal and professional lives.\n\n\"What can be very powerful in honoring the experiences of these survivors is when we as a society recognize that people who commit acts of sexual violence sometimes abuse celebrity or authority status -- and the illusion of trust that comes with it -- to act in abusive ways and evade responsibility.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Tony Buzbee, the lawyer for the women pursuing civil suits against Watson told CNN: \"The NFL is a joke, when it comes to this particular issue,\" and said he believes the NFL didn't take its internal investigation regarding Watson seriously.\n\n\"It didn't take me very long to figure out just in that process that the NFL wasn't serious about it. They're just not serious. They're serious about how many people you can put in the stands, how much merchandise you can sell, and how far you can throw the football. They're not concerned and are not serious about, you know, codes of conduct, things that are said, done, off the field,\" Buzbee said.\n\nDeshaun Watson #4 of the Cleveland Browns walks off the field after the Cleveland Browns OTAs at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on May 25, 2022 in Berea, Ohio.\n\nHe said that in interviews between the NFL investigators and Watson's accusers: \"One of the very first questions asked is, 'What were you wearing?' That speaks volumes to me.\n\n\"As if, as if the women somehow were in the wrong because of something they wore at what was supposed to be a professional massage session.\"\n\nMcCarthy, the NFL spokesperson, told CNN \"the question related to what the women were wearing was to help get a full understanding of the incidents,\" and said the legal team for the women did not object to the question at the time.\n\n\"It was in no way intended to... make the women feel uncomfortable or assign blame,\" he added.\n\nBut some experts say the NFL's handling of cases like Watson's get in the way of breaking the cycle of violence against women.\n\n\"All too often our society, criminal legal system, and private institutions fail to hold those who commit sexual harassment, assault, and abuse accountable,\" Palumbo said. \"Whenever sexual harassment and abuse are not taken seriously and handled with impunity, this contributes to the cycle of future harm.\"\n\nBeltré agrees. \"You cannot talk about restorative justice or giving a person a second opportunity when they never claim or admit their wrongdoing, and they move on in life as if nothing has happened, which gives them more power and opportunity to continue hurting others.\n\n\"What the NFL and other organizations have seen is that talent is more valuable than the harm that he's causing with his behavior,\" she said.\n\nQuarterback Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns speaks during his press conference introducing him to the Cleveland Browns at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on March 25, 2022 in Berea, Ohio.\n\nMcCarthy told CNN the league has mandatory domestic violence and sexual assault training for everyone in the NFL, including players, coaches and staff, which were developed in conjunction with domestic violence and sexual assault experts.\n\nWatson's attorney Hardin said that the NFL had been \"totally responsible\" in the way they had handled things so far.\n\n\"What they tried to avoid is any suggestion by law enforcement, that by talking to potential witnesses and potential complainants or making accusations or so they might very well get in the way of and hinder the official criminal investigation.\n\n\"Law enforcement has always preferred that private agencies who are looking into the conduct of their employees wait to conduct their investigations until the official investigation is complete,\" he added.\n\nHe added that the NFL has now been \"very aggressively\" pursuing the investigation.\n\nMixed reactions among fans\n\nSome fans are angry about Watson's transfer. \"I think they care,\" Benz told CNN. \"I also think that they know if they win, (the anger will) go away.\"\n\nHe points to the past as evidence of this.\n\n\"There were a lot of people saying that they'd never root for the Steelers again after they brought Michael Vick in for a few weeks. I don't think that deadened the fan base in Pittsburgh by any stretch of the imagination.\"\n\nNationally, there has been a \"resurgence in TV ratings and streaming numbers in the NFL this year, after two or three years of many football fans saying: 'I'll never watch the National Football League again because of the national anthem controversy,\" said Benz, referring to player protests that began with Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand as the national anthem played before NFL games.\n\n\"That's disappeared,\" he added.\n\n\"As far as the Browns case in particular, there's a franchise that is starved, perhaps more than any of the National Football League, for a Super Bowl and a football-rabid community.\n\n\"And if Deshaun Watson ends up getting them there and winning them one, I don't think any concerns that the Browns might have about the reaction of the fan base will be a whisper in their ear by the time the Vince Lombardi Trophy is hoisted in Cleveland, should it come to that,\" he said.\n\nJacobs said the NFL's handling of similar situations points to a reactive, not proactive, strategy.\n\n\"I think the NFL is very interested in problems going away, and they're very reactive to issues like diversity, and back when the Ray Rice tape came out and there was so much anger out there, and that's when they instituted their policy,\" she said, referring to the former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, who viciously knocked out his fiancée Janay in a casino elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2014 after a night of heavy drinking. The incident was captured on surveillance video.\n\nRice was indefinitely suspended by the NFL for violating its domestic violence policy -- a decision he successfully appealed, though no teams went on to sign him during his free agency.\n\n\"They're never on top of these things, like ever. Those parts of their history need to be written,\" added Jacobs.\n\nOnce a player has been punished, she said, some TV broadcasters rarely repeat why a sanctioned player has missed games, simply telling audiences, \"Oh, he was suspended for four games. Now he's back.\"\n\nIn the aftermath of a scandal and when a player is back on the field, \"it's more of the same,\" Jacobs said.\n\n\"They just sort of gloss over things to make it seem as if everybody is this wonderful, altruistic person,\" she said.\n\nMcCarthy told CNN that the league's official website (nfl.com) and TV network (NFL Network) report on every incident and suspension.\n\n\"After Ray Rice, there were PSAs out there,\" Jacobs said.\n\nLos Angeles-based filmmakers Made by Women Media created a public service announcement \"NO HITS\" calling on the NFL to \"stop tolerating abuse.\"\n\nIn 2014, following the furor over Rice's behavior, the union for professional football players, the NFL Players Association, put together a commission on domestic violence to give recommendations on how to tackle domestic violence and other issues facing the league. The NFLPA is an organization separate to the NFL.\n\n\"They had brought on an advisory committee and they went to educate players and especially men to stand up when they see something. And then that just went away,\" Jacobs said, adding that members of the commission quit because their recommendations weren't taken seriously.\n\nDeborah Epstein, one of the commissioners who resigned, said that she did so because of a failure by the union to act on recommendations.\n\n\"My NFLPA contacts would initially greet these ideas with a burst of enthusiasm and an indication of likely implementation, but efforts to follow up would yield nothing in the way of specific plans, and eventually communication would fade into radio silence,\" she wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post in June of 2018.\n\nJacobs made clear she isn't implying Watson is guilty.\n\n\"However, if you're going to allow the Deshaun Watsons of the world and people maybe in that 'probable, not definite but maybe' [category] then I do think, you as a league, have a responsibility to be open about violence against women, sexual assault, all those things like as a regular part of your programming.\n\n\"Again, talk about why these people were suspended, and offer programs to players. There just needs to be more invested into this [sports] world if you're going to allow potential perpetrators to exist in your league,\" she said.", "authors": ["Amy Woodyatt", "Ben Morse"], "publish_date": "2022/05/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/07/08/marilyn-manson-turns-himself-police-released-bail-assault-charges/7901177002/", "title": "Marilyn Manson released on bail after turning himself in on assault ...", "text": "Marilyn Manson turned himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department Friday on an outstanding warrant involving assault charges, according to police.\n\nManson, whose real name is Brian Warner, turned himself in on an arrest warrant based in Gilford, New Hampshire, and was released on bail with conditions, Gilford Police Chief Tony Bean Burpee said in a statement to USA TODAY. Manson's lawyers made an agreement with Gilford police to serve the warrant in California. Warner was processed and released on personal recognizance bail.\n\nThe musician faces two counts of Class A misdemeanor simple assault. The accusations against Manson stem from acts that allegedly occurred while performing during a concert at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, Burpee said.\n\nAwaiting arrest:Police expect Marilyn Manson to turn himself in to authorities on assault charges\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to Manson's lawyer for comment.\n\nThe musician was released under conditions that he does not commit a federal, state or local crime while on release, he appears at all court proceedings and he has no contact with the alleged victim, Burpee said.\n\nManson will appear in the 4th Circuit Court in Laconia, New Hampshire. In a June statement Burpee gave to USA TODAY, a mid-August court appearance would be likely.\n\nLaw enforcement say the alleged assaults were not sexual in nature and involved a videographer in the stage pit, who was subcontracted to film the show.\n\nInitially, Manson's attorney Howard King called the Gilford Police Department's claim \"ludicrous\" in a May statement to USA TODAY, but added that he and his client \"remain committed to cooperating with authorities, as we have done throughout.\"\n\nMore:Marilyn Manson denies 'Game of Thrones' star Esmé Bianco's allegations of sexual assault\n\nMore allegations of abuse have been made against the rocker over the past year. Ashley Morgan Smithline is the fourth person to file suit against Manson, with her June lawsuit alleging she was sexually, emotionally and physically abused while dating him.\n\nAmong the claims in Smithline’s suit against the rocker are sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment. The model accused the rocker of raping, biting and whipping her during their relationship more than a decade ago in a People interview published May 5.\n\nAn unnamed spokesperson for Manson denied Smithline's allegations to USA TODAY, saying Manson’s relationship with her lasted less than a week. Smithline told People the two were together for more than two years and provided the outlet with emails and messages.\n\n“We strongly deny Ms. Smithline’s claims,” the spokesperson said. “There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them.”\n\nSmithline is one of multiple women who have accused the embattled musician of assault, including his ex-fiancé Evan Rachel Wood and \"Game of Thrones\" actress Esmé Bianco. In April, Bianco filed a lawsuit accusing Manson of sexual assault, sexual battery and human trafficking, and in February, \"Westworld\" star Wood alleged Manson \"horrifically abused\" her \"for years.\"\n\nManson has pushed back against Wood's claims, saying, \"My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.\"\n\nIf you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE & online.rainn.org).\n\nContributing: Charles Trepany, Jenna Ryu", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/five-things-june-16-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 16: Interest rates, Covid, January 6, Buffalo ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Major retailers are facing a backlash for selling themed products in an attempt to monetize Juneteenth , the upcoming federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Inclusion experts say \"tone deaf\" marketing campaigns -- including Walmart's Juneteenth ice cream and Dollar Tree's Pan African-themed plates and napkins -- promote stereotypes and often fail to provide any historical context.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Interest rates\n\nThe Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday in an aggressive move to tackle inflation. It's the biggest increase in 28 years and will affect millions of American businesses and households by pushing up the cost of borrowing for homes, cars and other loans. Many consumers who are already concerned about the soaring cost of living will now face higher mortgage rates that will make it harder to afford homes. However, that weaker demand could cool off prices in the future. The goal of the Fed's interest rate hikes is to get inflation under control while keeping the job market recovery intact, but experts say the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and Covid-19 could impact that progress.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nCovid-19 vaccines could be available for children as young as 6 months as early as next week, according to the White House. FDA vaccine advisers voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for emergency use in the youngest children. The FDA, which typically follows the committee's decisions, is expected to vote on the authorization this weekend. Children younger than five are the only age group not currently eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. About 17 million kids will become eligible for vaccines once they're authorized for this age group. Separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving treatment.\n\n3. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol will use its third hearing today to make the case that then-President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on his vice president to overturn the 2020 presidential election \"directly contributed\" to the violence on January 6, 2021, according to committee aides. The hearing, aides said, will also reveal new materials about then-Vice President Mike Pence's movements on January 6, including his whereabouts and what he was doing when rioters breached the Capitol. This comes as Republican candidates across the country are running and winning primaries on Trump's false assertion that he won the election -- despite the fact such claims have been dismissed by former members of his administration testifying under oath.\n\nJUST WATCHED Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence 01:30\n\n4. Buffalo shooting\n\nThe suspect in the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket last month that killed 10 people faces multiple federal hate crime charges carrying the potential of the death penalty, the US Justice Department said Wednesday. The 18-year-old suspect is accused of shooting 13 people at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14. Eleven were Black and two were White, Buffalo police said. During a search of the gunman's home, federal authorities found a laptop with a document containing a detailed plan of the attack he had allegedly been planning for years, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities believe he visited the store multiple times, including the day before the attack and again, hours before he allegedly fired about 60 shots.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story 03:17\n\n5. Baby formula\n\nIn a move to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, the Biden administration announced it is shipping 44,000 pounds of specialty formula from Switzerland to the US today. The supply \"will be available primarily through a distribution pipeline serving hospitals, home health companies, and WIC programs around the US,\" the White House said. But even as the government airlifts tons of formula in from other countries, getting regular supplies back to retailers could take weeks, with some estimates from stakeholders that there might not be relief until mid-July. Meanwhile, Abbott Nutrition -- the baby formula manufacturer that once produced a significant amount of the powdered formula sold in the US -- is now experiencing more delays after flooding at its Michigan plant.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage 02:12\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nWatch Hong Kong's iconic floating restaurant get towed away\n\nGenerations of locals and tourists will miss this iconic attraction , billed as the world's biggest floating restaurant. No one knows where it will end up next...\n\nA first look at Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie' has sent the internet into a frenzy\n\nWho could play a better tanned and toned Ken doll than Ryan Gosling ? (That's a trick question... there is literally no one more perfect for this role.)\n\nFive guys take the same photo for 40 years\n\nThis group of friends took pictures in the same pose from 1982 to 2022. Check out their cool tradition\n\n'Floating' airplane cabin could be the future of travel\n\nA futuristic cabin concept with \" floating furniture \" recently won a prestigious aviation award.\n\nReal estate job cuts: Redfin and Compass announce layoffs\n\nMortgage rates are climbing, home sales are dropping and some of the largest real estate companies are announcing layoffs\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2.9 million\n\nThat's how many vehicles Ford is recalling due to issues that could prevent certain models from shifting into the correct gear, which might cause them to move in unintended directions. The National Highway Safety Administration says it has six reports of property damage and four reports of injuries potentially related to the problem. The vehicles involved are the model year 2013 to 2019 Escape, the 2013-2018 C-Max, 2013-2016 Fusion and the 2013-2021 Transit Connect.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The security support from the United States is unprecedented. It brings us closer to a common victory over the Russian aggressor.\"\n\n-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, thanking President Biden on Wednesday for providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The latest weapons package comes as Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West to send additional heavy weaponry as the war grinds on. A Pentagon spokesman said the US has now committed more than $5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. Separately, the leaders of France, Germany and Italy arrived in Kyiv today, where they are expected to meet with Zelensky and express \"a message of European unity.\"\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Record heat continues across much of the East Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Record heat continues across much of the East 01:44\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nThe California Roll Was Invented in Canada", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/11/09/ed-henry-accuser-adds-more-claims-what-fox-news-knew-when/6225304002/", "title": "Ed Henry accuser adds more claims about what Fox News knew ...", "text": "The woman who accused former Fox News star Ed Henry of raping her in 2017 is doubling down on her claims that Fox News knew about his alleged misconduct against multiple women years before he was fired, and did nothing about it.\n\nJennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business producer who filed a civil suit in July naming Henry and Fox News, on Monday amended the lawsuit to push back against Fox News' denial of wrongdoing.\n\nFox News responded to the original lawsuit by denying that anyone had raised sexual harassment concerns about Henry prior to Eckhart in June 2020. “There were no sexual harassment claims against Ed Henry at Fox News prior to Jennifer Eckhart’s claim on June 25, 2020,” the network's statement to USA TODAY said in July.\n\nEckhart's amended lawsuit alleges that this denial is not true. \"The new allegations make clear that Fox News’ blanket denials are untruthful, and we look forward to taking discovery in this case to learn even more,” said one of her lawyers, Michael Willemin, in a statement to USA TODAY.\n\nEckhart cited the alleged experiences of multiple women, some of them named, who claim they were sexually harassed by Henry or engaged in sex with him out of fear of losing their jobs at the cable news channel, and their careers.\n\nFox News issued a statement to USA TODAY late Monday that reiterated its earlier response to Eckhart's lawsuit: that there were no claims against Henry at Fox prior to June 2020.\n\n“Upon first learning of the allegations, we promptly commenced an independent investigation and took immediate action, firing Mr. Henry within six days of the notification on July 1, 2020,\" the statement said.\n\n\"FOX News takes all claims of harassment, misconduct and retaliation extremely seriously and maintains a zero tolerance policy that is strictly enforced throughout the company which is why Mr. Henry was fired within days of Ms. Eckhart’s complaint.”\n\nIn October, Henry filed a motion seeking to dismiss Eckhart's lawsuit, arguing that her claims he raped her are \"malicious and defamatory.\" His lawyers say she sent Henry \"erotic and encouraging text messages,\" along with salacious and explicit pictures of herself, suggesting she pursued \"a consensual relationship\" with him.\n\nEckhart rejected that argument last month. \"No man is entitled to violently rape a woman because she sent him consensual-looking text messages,\" she told USA TODAY in a statement.\n\nIn the amended Eckhart lawsuit, one of the women named, media relations professional Brooke Hammerling, says she met Henry when he worked at CNN and described his aggressive sexual \"moves,\" which she declined.\n\n\"I felt like swatting him away like a fly,\" Hammerling is quoted as saying in the lawsuit. \"He was not someone that would directly impact my job so I didn’t really care.\"\n\nBut she said publicly, in a tweet in August after Henry was fired on July 1 and after the original lawsuit was filed three weeks later, that Fox News had to know all about what she claims was widely known by \"women in the communications industry.\"\n\n“No chance @foxnews didn’t know about Ed Henry,\" her tweet read. \"He was a menace to many of us on the [communication's] side when he was at @cnn and everyone talked about it. Literally so so so gross.”\n\nAnother named woman, Roxie Marroquin, who says she met Henry in 2015 when she was 25, invited Henry to meet because she was seeking a mentor in the TV industry. At the time, Henry was the chief White House correspondent for Fox.\n\nThey agreed to meet in a Las Vegas hotel, she agreed to go to his room and then agreed to disrobe and get into a bathtub with him where he groped her and she \"submitted to the pressure\" of his \"advances.\"\n\n“I was honestly kind of afraid and frozen,\" she is quoted as saying in the complaint. \"I felt trapped, in a way, like, ‘oh man, did I give this person the wrong impression? What happens if I don’t do this?’...So, I ended up getting in the bathtub. Fully nude. How this happens to a 25-year-old, I can’t explain, besides fear of rejecting him.”\n\nLater, she says, Henry began to fear she would report him and began sending her threatening messages. She claims Henry sent a private investigator to warn her to “keep her mouth closed,” and who told her he knew where she lived and that Henry would sue her if she talked.\n\nBut the lawsuit doesn't say whether she told anyone in Fox News management about these alleged encounters nor does it explain how the network managers would have learned of them otherwise.\n\nThe lawsuit claims that Fox was long aware of misconduct under its roof starting in mid-2016 when the network brought in an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment arising from allegations against the late Roger Ailes, then the network chief, and former star anchor Bill O'Reilly.\n\n\"During the investigations, multiple women came forward to complain that Mr. Henry had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct towards them,\" the complaint says. \"These women came forward to complain before Ms. Eckhart was raped by Mr. Henry\" allegedly in a New York hotel in 2017.\n\nAnother woman Eckhart names in the complaint is Liz Claman, a Fox Business anchor for whom Eckhart once worked as an assistant. According to Eckhart, in 2016, after Henry was suspended by Fox for four months because of an affair with a Las Vegas stripper, Claman told her: \"Everyone at Fox News knows that Henry is a sex addict. That’s no secret.”\n\nIn her amended complaint, Eckhart accuses Claman of forcing Eckhart to perform humiliating tasks, such as cleaning out her refrigerator, and addressing her in a demeaning and belittling manner. Eckhart also was offended that Claman would undress in front of her in her office and walk around in \"nothing but underwear.\"\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to Claman for comment through Fox News.\n\nEckhart's amended lawsuit features allegations against Henry from \"Jane Does\" who later shared their stories with Eckhart. \"Jane Doe 1,\" currently an associate producer for Fox News in Washington, is quoted in the amended lawsuit accusing Henry of sending her a picture of his penis soon after they met.\n\n\"Despite being warned about Mr. Henry’s lascivious behavior, Ms. Doe 1 entered into a relationship with Mr. Henry, seduced by his senior position and high profile, all enabled by Fox News,\" the complaint says. \"Ms. Doe 1 has described her relationship with Mr. Henry as emotionally abusive. She further stated that she was 'taken advantage of because I was much younger than him. There was a power imbalance.'\"\n\nAfter Eckhart filed her lawsuit, Jane Doe 1 tweeted her support. The complaint accuses a Fox News human resources executive of calling her and attempting to intimidate her for publicly supporting Eckhart.\n\nEckhart says in her complaint that in February, after she complained about a toxic environment at Fox, she was put on a “Performance Improvement Plan” and eventually fired, even though she had up to then received numerous positive performance reviews.\n\n“The amended complaint lays out how Fox News attempted to bury its head in the sand and refused to take appropriate action to protect its female employees, including Ms. Eckhart, all in the name of its bottom line,\" Eckhart's lawyer, Willemin, said in his statement.\n\nIn July, after Eckhart and Cathy Areu, who appeared as a guest on Fox, filed a joint lawsuit (they have since been separated), Fox issued a lengthy statement in response, assertingbased on findings by an independent investigation, that all of Areu's allegations against Fox were \"false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.\n\n\"We take all claims of harassment, misconduct and retaliation seriously, promptly investigating them and taking immediate action as needed — in this case, the appropriate action based on our investigation is to defend vigorously against these baseless allegations,\" the statement said. \"Ms. Areu and Jennifer Eckhart can pursue their claims against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr. Henry is no longer employed by the network.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/11/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/10/harvey-weinstein-day-5-court-jury-selection/4423153002/", "title": "Harvey Weinstein trial: Charlize Theron named as potential witness", "text": "NEW YORK – The first week of Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial is coming to a close, and Friday kicked off with a heated courtroom exchange between the judge and a member of Weinstein's legal team, and news that A-list actress Charlize Theron may be called as a witness.\n\nAttorney Arthur Aidala filed a motion suggesting potential jurors are unable to speak freely in the screening process given the media attention surrounding the case.\n\n\"Most people do not speak in front of international media,\" he told Judge James Burke. \"In order for citizens to be as honest and forthright as possible, we ask that jury selection be done in private.”\n\nBurke replied: \"That’s against the law! I’ll read this, but I’m generally familiar with this form of the law... I’m disagreeing with you on virtually every level.\"\n\nManhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi also objected. \"Now they want each person to be (interviewed) in private? I don’t think there’s any precedent for doing that.\"\n\nIn the motion, which USA TODAY obtained early Friday afternoon, Aidala says that Weinstein's defense has reviewed some of the potential jurors' questionnaires and believes many are unfairly biased against the ex-producer.\n\nReading them, \"we have learned that (1) some jurors have not been candid in their responses; (2) at least one juror has expressed an ulterior financial motive for serving on Mr. Weinstein's trial and that he would find him guilty; (3) a number of jurors have been victims of or had exposure to sexual assault or domestic violence; and (4) nearly all jurors have heard about this case,\" Aidala writes.\n\nBurke told the court he would rule on the motion after giving it a read later in the afternoon or over the weekend.\n\nWeinstein's legal team has had little success persuading Burke to rule in their favor. Throughout the week, his defense filed motions to have Burke excused from the case and accusers' attorney Gloria Allred barred from the courtroom. The legal team also requested the trial be adjourned following new sex-crime charges filed in Los Angeles. All of the motions were denied.\n\nThe trial hit another snag Thursday when prosecutor Illuzzi suffered a medical emergency – she had something in her eye, according to the district attorney's office – and was forced to leave court before the third round of jury pre-selection.\n\nOn Friday, she told the judge she was feeling \"much, much better.\"\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial::Prosecutor has medical 'emergency,' gets 'something in her eye in court'\n\nJury screening resumed Friday with 108 new potential jurors, although only 30 to 40 people moved on in the jury selection process, according to a media pool report. Many people said they could not be fair and impartial toward Weinstein, while one man said that he had worked with one of Weinstein's charities in the past and would be \"uncomfortable\" if chosen for the jury.\n\nOthers said that they could be fair and impartial, despite having met or worked with members of Weinstein's defense and Theron, who's listed as a potential witness in the trial. \"Like a Boss\" actress Salma Hayek was also named as a potential witness.\n\nAs jury pre-selection wrapped late Friday morning, about 60 women wearing all black gathered for a protest outside the courthouse, according to the media pool report. \"It's not my fault, not where I was, not how I dressed,\" they chanted several times. \"And the rapist was you!\"\n\nThe jury selection process will continue next week, and opening statements are targeted to begin Jan. 22.\n\nWeinstein, 67, is accused of five sex crimes in New York involving encounters with two women. The embattled movie mogul was charged in May 2018, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been free on $1 million bail (recently raised to $5 million). He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.\n\nIf convicted, he could receive a life sentence.\n\nEarlier this week, he was charged in Los Angeles with four sex crimes. Weinstein is accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over two days in February 2013. A trial in that case is not likely to occur until after the New York case is resolved.\n\nMore:Harvey Weinstein charged with rape, sexual battery in Los Angeles over 2013 allegations", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/10/kate-winslet-woody-allen-roman-polanski/3463714001/", "title": "Kate Winslet regrets working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski", "text": "Kate Winslet says she regrets working with embattled directors Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.\n\nDuring an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress broke her silence on the misconduct and sexual assault allegations surrounding the two directors. She \"takes responsibility\" for working with Allen, 84, on 2017's \"Wonder Wheel\" and Polanski, 87, on 2011's \"Carnage.\"\n\n\"It’s like, what the (expletive) was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?\" Winslet, 44, told the outlet. \"It’s unbelievable to me now how those men were held in such high regard, so widely in the film industry and for as long as they were. It’s (expletive) disgraceful.\"\n\nWatch Kate Winslet and Idris Elba's deleted scene from 'Mountain Between Us'\n\nAlthough Winslet said she \"can’t turn back the clock,\" the actress said she now has \"to take responsibility for the fact that I worked with them both.\"\n\n\"I’m grappling with those regrets, but what do we have if we aren’t able to just be (expletive) truthful about all of it?\" she added.\n\nMoving forward, Winslet said she has a duty to set a \"decent example to younger women\" by carefully considering the roles she accepts and the stories she tells. She admits this revelation came after working on Francis Lee's film \"Ammonite,\" which centers around the budding love between fossil hunter Mary Anning (Winslet) and the wife of a wealthy visitor, Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). The film premieres Friday at the largely virtual Toronto International Film Festival.\n\n\"'Ammonite' has made me really aware of being even more committed to honoring what women want to be saying for themselves in films and how we really want to be portrayed, regardless of sexual orientation,\" Winslet said, describing the film as \"so loving, so tender and so beautiful.\"\n\nShe added: \"Life is (expletive) short and I’d like to do my best when it comes to setting a decent example to younger women. We’re handing them a pretty (expletive) world, so I’d like to do my bit in having some proper integrity.\"\n\nSaoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet kiss, fall in love in first trailer for Francis Lee's 'Ammonite'\n\nThis marks the first time Winslet has specifically denounced the embattled directors.\n\nIn 2017, she defended working with Allen and Polanski ahead of the \"Wonder Wheel\" premiere at the New York Film Festival.\n\n\"As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, 'I don’t know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false,' \" she told The New York Times. \"Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that’s the truth.\"\n\nHowever, Winslet changed her stance and condemned abuse of power in the film industry at the London Critics’ Circle film awards in January 2018, although she didn't go as far as naming anyone in particular.\n\n\"There are directors, producers and men of power who have for decades been awarded and applauded for their highly regarded work by both this industry and moviegoers alike,\" she said during her acceptance speech.\n\nShe added: \"It has become clear to me that by not saying anything, I might be adding to the anguish of many courageous women and men. Sexual abuse is a crime.\"\n\nAllen has been the center of much controversy since the '90s. His adoptive step-daughter, Dylan Farrow, has alleged he sexual abused her when she was a child. Allen has always denied the allegations.\n\nAnd he raised eyebrows for marrying Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of longtime partner Mia Farrow, when he was 61 and she 27. They have now been married nearly 23 years.\n\nPolanski fled the country in 1978 after pleading guilty to the rape of a 13-year-old girl. He's been unable to return to the U.S., not even to collect his best-director Oscar for \"The Pianist\" in 2003, or to appear at the Academy Awards ceremonies when he was nominated for best director in 1981 for \"Tess.\"\n\nThe sexual abuse allegations against both directors resurfaced amid the #MeToo era.\n\nContributing: Amy Haneline, Maria Puente\n\nRoman Polanski:Oscar winner loses his bid for Academy reinstatement\n\nWoody Allen says abuse controversy was 'a false allegation but a great tabloid drama'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/29/harvey-weinstein-accuser-graphic-sexual-assault-2000-s-testimony/4599840002/", "title": "Harvey Weinstein accuser tells jury explicit assault details, says he ...", "text": "NEW YORK – After a week of emotional, often graphic testimony in the Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial, the jury heard Wednesday from two former aspiring actresses who described being sexually assaulted by Weinstein in the mid-2000s.\n\nTarale Wulff, 43, the fourth woman so far to take the stand to testify about what she says Weinstein did to her, said he raped her in the summer of 2005 at his downtown apartment in New York, where she went for what she thought was a meeting about a possible role in one of his movies.\n\n“I told him I can’t. And he answered don’t worry I have a vasectomy,” Wulff said as she described how he put her on a bed. “And I just froze. Going blank is easier for me. It’s just easier for me to get past it. I just remember getting up. I don’t remember anything in between.\"\n\nShe said she pulled herself together, and he took her downstairs to a car. She went back to his office and got a script but never did the audition and didn't get the part.\n\n\"I just wanted it to go away,\" she said, explaining that she didn't confide in anyone or call the police. \"It was just easiest for me to pretend it didn’t happen and go about my day.\"\n\nShe said this encounter occurred a few weeks after Weinstein approached her at Cipriani Soho, a restaurant and bar downtown where she worked. She said she was cleaning the bar one night when Weinstein took her by the arm and steered her to a dark corner where he made her stand in front of him.\n\n\"He had on an (untucked) white shirt and I noticed his shirt started moving, and I realized he was masturbating under his shirt,\" she testified. \"I froze for a second... and then ran past him.\"\n\nOn cross-examination, prosecutors and defense lawyers got into an argument over the timeline of Wulff's story; initially she said the rape happened in 2004, but changed the year after speaking to a friend. The defense wanted to question this friend; Judge James Burke denied it.\n\nWulff said she first went to Weinstein's office to look at a script and audition for a possible movie role. But she was told Weinstein wanted to see her in person so she got into a car with his driver thinking she was going to a coffee shop. Instead, she was taken to Weinstein's apartment, and without the script she was supposed to audition for.\n\n\"So you just thought you were leaving in the middle of the audition to just go see Harvey?\" asked defense attorney Donna Rotunno. \"Yes,\" Wulff answered. \"For what?\" Rotunno asked. \"No specific reason,\" Wulff responded.\n\nDuring cross-examination, Wulff paused frequently and stammered, saying she was unsure about times and dates. Rotunno questioned her about whether she specifically told the district attorney's office in October 2017 that Weinstein had raped her at his apartment. Wulff said she couldn't remember.\n\nShe also denied Rotunno's questions about whether prosecutors told her in 2017 that they couldn't use her as a witness against Weinstein because her memories of the encounter were \"too fragmented.\" They suggested she see a psychologist specializing in memory issues, which she did, Rotunno said.\n\n\"Did you know you’ve seen (your psychologist) 55 times?,\" Rotunno asked. \"And after all those sessions, the district attorney’s office was like, 'we’re going to use you in this case,' correct?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Wulff responded,\n\n\"After several sessions with (the psychologist), isn’t it true that you told prosecutors that you think you voiced (to Weinstein) you didn’t want to have sex?\" \"I don’t recall,\" Wulff said.\n\nWulff, who now works as a model, and Dawn Dunning took the stand Wednesday as a \"prior bad acts\" or \"Molineux\" witnesses – accusers whose allegations are too old to prosecute but have been allowed to testify to bolster prosecutors' case that Weinstein engaged in a pattern of sexual assault.\n\nDunning, 40, who met Weinstein at a nightclub where she worked, testified that she met with him over several months in 2004 about possible roles in his movies and doing a screen test.\n\n“He would make comments about my looks and my body, but it wasn’t anything worse than what I’d heard in nightclubs,\" Dunning said. \"I never thought it was unsafe.”\n\nShe met him in a hotel in Soho where he was working on a project in a suite packed with people working. She sensed no danger, no red flags, she said.\n\n“I was talking with Harvey and he kind of led me into the other room, and I sat next to him on the bed, and I was wearing a skirt that day and he put his hand up my skirt,” Dunning said, starting to cry as she described Weinstein touching her.\n\n\"I stood up. I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting that to happen,\" she said. \"He started talking really fast, he was like, don't make a big deal out of this, he said it wouldn’t happen again.\"\n\nShe said she left shortly after. \"I was just trying to rationalize it in my head,\" she said, her voice breaking again. \"I just gave him the benefit of the doubt that it wouldn't happen again. I didn't yell at him or scream or anything.\"\n\nShe said she didn't tell anyone. \"I was embarrassed. I wanted to pretend like it didn't happen. I didn't want to be a victim. ...(Before), I was trying to get work from him, so it was a work relationship. It was a really big deal for me.\"\n\nA few weeks later, she said she met with him again at a hotel near Park Avenue, where his assistant took her up to his room. He was wearing a bathrobe and quickly \"cut to the chase,\" Dunning said. With the assistant in the room, he showed her contracts for three films and said they were hers if she agreed to a threesome.\n\n\"I thought he was kidding. He had kind of a crass sense of humor,\" she said. \"When I started to leave, he started screaming at me and said, 'You'll never make it in this business!' \"\n\nShe said he told her that was how Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek and other A-list actors became stars. There is no evidence, at this trial or anywhere else, that this is true, and both women have strongly denied it.\n\nDunning said he was yelling at her, towering over her, and she was scared.\n\n\"I just remember looking at (his assistant) and she was blank,\" she said. \"I ran out to Park Avenue and got in the first cab I saw and went home.\"\n\nOn cross examination, she acknowledged under questioning by defense attorney Arthur Aidala that no one stopped her from leaving the room or blocked the door.\n\nDunning acknowledged that she went public in October 2017 with her description of the second encounter with Weinstein, discussing it in multiple media interviews, but did not mention the earlier encounter until she called the district attorney's office in July 2019.\n\n\"Just shy of two years, after all those interviews, you said you have some more information I want to tell you,\" Aidala asked.\n\n\"You thought it was weird but not so weird you had to leave?\" Aidala said. \"Is it true that you told (CNN's) Don Lemon that you thought it was weird, but not so weird you had to leave?\"\n\n\"I never said that,\" Dunning replied.\n\nOn Tuesday, the court got a moment of welcome levity, thanks to a chihuahua named Peanut.\n\nWhen Elizabeth Entin, the ex-roommate of Weinstein accuser Miriam \"Mimi\" Haleyi, took the stand, she recalled an instance when the embattled movie mogul allegedly came to their New York City apartment unannounced in 2006.\n\n\"My chihuahua started chasing him around and he was saying, 'Get this thing away from me,' \" Entin said. Before Weinstein's alleged rape of Haleyi that summer, \"we thought it was just this pathetic older man trying to hit on Miriam and had a laugh about it.\"\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial:Roommate backs Mimi Haleyi's accusation, says 'it sounded like rape'\n\nHaleyi is one of the two accusers whose accusations form the basis of the charges against Weinstein.\n\nThis week, after Wulff and Dunning testify, the other complaining witness will take the stand. Jessica Mann says Weinstein raped her at a hotel in 2013.\n\nA third and final Molineux witness will likely testify Monday, completing the bulk of a prosecution case that began last Wednesday. The trial opened Jan. 6 and could last until early March.\n\nWeinstein, 67, is charged with five sex crimes, including rape and sexual assault, stemming from encounters with Haleyi and Mann. He pleaded not guilty and has denied all nonconsensual sexual encounters.\n\n'I'm being raped':Harvey Weinstein accuser sobs as she describes trying to fight him off\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial:Rosie Perez testifies that Annabella Sciorra said 'I think it was rape'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/29"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_6", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/us/dartmouth-undergraduate-student-loans-scholarship-grants/index.html", "title": "Dartmouth College eliminates undergraduate student loans and ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nDartmouth College announced Tuesday it was eliminating student loans for undergraduates and replacing them with “expanded scholarship grants,” the university said in a news release.\n\nThe initiative is part of the Ivy League school’s “The Call to Lead” leadership campaign, and will begin starting June 23 for the summer 2022 term, the release said. The announcement also means Dartmouth’s class of 2022 will be the first class to enter the school and benefit from this program, the release said.\n\n“Thanks to this extraordinary investment by our community, students can prepare for lives of impact with fewer constraints,” Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon said in a statement.\n\nDartmouth’s announcement comes amid the ongoing debate about student loan debt in the US, where 43 million people are waiting to find out if President Joe Biden will wipe away all or part of their federal student loan debt. In April, after facing months of pressure from other Democrats to cancel $50,000 per borrower, Biden said he was considering some broad student loan forgiveness, though a smaller amount.\n\nDartmouth previously eliminated the loan requirement for undergrads from families with an annual income of $125,000 or less. That will now be extended to families making more than $125,000 or less who receive need-based aid, the release said.\n\nThe transition to a “no loan financial policy” will benefit students from middle-income families, the release said. The initiative is “the culmination of a remarkable series of achievements that have transformed Dartmouth’s financial aid resources and policies over the past year, propelled by more than $120 million in scholarship gifts and pledges to the endowment since September 1,” the release said.\n\n“More than 65 families supported the campaign goal to eliminate loan requirements from Dartmouth’s undergraduate financial aid awards, committing more than $80 million in gifts to the endowment,” the release said.\n\nAn anonymous donor committed $25 million to complete the campaign, which was “one of the largest scholarship endowments in Dartmouth history,” the release said.\n\n“When I think of the exciting and transformational opportunities now available to these students without this financial barrier, I believe it’s one of the most meaningful achievements of the campaign,” Dartmouth alumna Ellie Loughlin said in a statement.\n\nDartmouth is not the only school to have modified its policy on student loans. Williams College in Massachusetts switched all financial aid to no-payback grants starting this fall.\n\nIn Georgia, Emory University announced in January it would be eliminating need-based loans as part of undergraduate financial aid packages, and replacing them with institutional grants and scholarships.\n\nOhio State University announced in November 2021 that it would use its endowment to eliminate student loans within the decade for its “debt-free degree” plan.", "authors": ["Amir Vera Melissa Alonso", "Amir Vera", "Melissa Alonso"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/07/28/nj-community-colleges-used-covid-relief-funds-tuition/5394318001/", "title": "These North Jersey community colleges used COVID relief funds to ...", "text": "North Jersey community colleges are using some of the millions from their share of federal pandemic relief funds to forgive unpaid college tuition incurred during the pandemic.\n\nBergen Community College in Paramus announced on Monday that it will use nearly $5 million in federal relief funds to erase outstanding balances that students owe the college. A few weeks earlier, Hudson County Community College in Jersey City announced that it had expunged more than $4.8 million in student balances.\n\nTwo thousand students will benefit from the Bergen initiative, and 4,800 students benefited from Hudson's, according to statements issued by the colleges. Students do not have to apply for this relief; balances are removed automatically from their accounts.\n\n“This is our way of saying: Get back on track, move towards transfers and career success,” said Dr. Eric Friedman, president of Bergen Community College. He said the program will benefit students who had financial holds on their accounts due to past-due balances incurred last year. The Hudson County program expunged balances for all enrolled students, regardless of whether their accounts were frozen.\n\nBut while colleges are forgiving the balances that students owe to them, they are not forgiving federal loan debt.\n\n“I think that this is something that colleges should be clarifying,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor at Seton Hall University and an expert on higher education and student aid. “I think it’s a wonderful thing they are doing for students, but they need to clarify that this is not all the money that they owe,” he said, referring to a press release issued by Bergen Community College that announced the debt relief measure.\n\nDr. Larry Hvalenka, executive director of public relations at Bergen, noted that by erasing balances, the college might still indirectly help students by freeing up funds so they can repay their federal loans.\n\nBergen County students appear to have accumulated nearly $15 million in federal student loans in the 2019-20 academic year, Kelchen noted in an email. The $5 million is a small portion of that, he said.\n\nFor students who have taken federal student loans, the debt relief they receive through initiatives like these could be a small portion of their total debt load, in relation to what is owed to the federal government, said Victoria Yuen, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute.\n\nNew guidance:CDC recommends K-12 students and residents in 8 NJ counties wear masks indoors\n\nPassaic County:New early voting law will cost Passaic County $11 million in equipment upgrades\n\nVaccines:NJ veterans home staff not required to get COVID shots, while federal VA mandates them\n\nStill, the impact of this measure on thousands of students is enormous.\n\nElizabeth Schnur, a 23-year-old BCC student and Lyndhurst native, was shocked and excited to learn that she’ll be having a fresh start, with her balance essentially wiped clean. Schnur, who is aiming to become the first lawyer in her family, has a long educational journey ahead of her and is happy to know she can look at law school and potentially Ivy League schools in the future without worrying about the tuition costs from Bergen Community College.\n\n“It definitely takes the pressure off,” Schnur said. “I’ve had the bill sitting around here for a while, but I just got a phone call [about the debt erasure]. It was such good news.”\n\nFunding for these initiatives came from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which flows directly from the federal government to colleges and universities with no state involvement.\n\nThe fund is one-time money, paid for by relief measures enacted by the federal government in response to the pandemic — the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act and the ARP (American Rescue Plan). Colleges are required to use half of the funding they receive to provide direct relief to students.\n\nColleges typically do not allow students to continue registering for classes if they owe money. \"We wanted to break down barriers to degree completion so they could register and move forward,\" said Friedman.\n\nAffordability is a priority at community colleges, and 46% of students at the Bergen school qualify for income-based Pell Grants, which are awarded by the federal government to low-income students.\n\nThe college also distributed $10 million in direct payments to students from CARES funding, regardless of whether they had an outstanding balance as pandemic relief, Friedman said. Hudson County Community College distributed $8.5 million in funds to help students with costs that arose during the pandemic, from tuition to housing, food, health and child care, according to a press release.\n\nState and public universities are implementing similar measures, said spokespersons for Rutgers and Montclair State universities.\n\nMontclair State said it has distributed more than $17.8 million in federal pandemic relief dollars to nearly 7,600 students to date. Students were given the choice of having money applied directly to their accounts or receiving cash grants to defray COVID-related educational expenses.\n\nStaff Writer Stephanie Noda contributed to this story.\n\nMary Ann Koruth covers education for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about New Jersey's schools and how it affects your children, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.\n\nEmail: koruthm@northjersey.com\n\nTwitter: @MaryAnnKoruth", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/paterson-press/2017/04/07/paterson-student-beats-odds-ivy-league-invite/100173552/", "title": "Paterson student beats odds with Ivy League invite", "text": "Joe Malinconico\n\nPaterson Press\n\nPATERSON – First grade was a struggle for Jeferson Mendoza.\n\nEven though he was born in New Jersey, the boy had not learned English. His mother, an immigrant from Peru, didn’t speak the language very well, either.\n\nThey spent hours together after school in their Paterson apartment, working on his homework, using a translation device to get through the strange words on the assignments. “She would sit with me all night,” recalled Jeferson, who is now 17.\n\nHomework stopped being a struggle for Jeferson many years ago. The senior at John F. Kennedy High School’s Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy already has participated in advanced programs at six colleges, including a research project on protein cells in an effort to cure disease. The teenager also is on track to be valedictorian at his school’s graduation this spring.\n\nJeferson’s efforts culminated last week in his acceptance to Dartmouth College, making him the third student from Kennedy high school’s College Ready program to get into an Ivy League school in the past five years.\n\nGREAT FALLS: Paterson's national park sees increase in visitors\n\nSTUDENTS: Paterson parents lobby to give their kids a fighting chance\n\nBUDGET: Cuts may eliminate 208 Paterson school district jobs\n\n“Everybody was rooting for him,” said another College Ready program student, Amran Alsaidi. “We were happy that somebody from Paterson made it like that.”\n\n“When he got in, it was like an accomplishment for the whole team,” said Erik Castro, one of Jeferson’s best friends and a fellow member of the College Ready Robotics team. “Why would we be jealous? He’s one of us.”\n\nIn some school districts, Ivy League acceptances are somewhat of an annual ritual. But Paterson schools have some of the lowest student test scores in New Jersey. Faculty members say that’s why the recent successes of members of the College Ready program have meant so much to the district.\n\n“I can’t wait until we reach the point where the newspapers stop doing stories because it’s considered normal for our kids to get accepted to the Ivy League,” said STEM Principal Nicholas Vancheri.\n\nPassaic student has her pick of 5 Ivy League schools\n\nJeferson said his parents picked his name from a street sign in Paterson. He said he’s not sure why they left out the second “f.”\n\nThe student’s father, Arturo, drives a bus and follows world politics with a passion, the teenager said. His mother, Rocio, had wanted to be an obstetrician, but put aside her studies when she came to America. She now does temp work, like cleaning homes, he said.\n\nJeferson had applied to four Ivy League schools – Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton. March 30 was the common date when the Ivies announced their acceptances, with the information becoming available online at 5 p.m.\n\nJeferson said he was busy that day, helping produce a virtual tour of the Great Falls national park for the Hamilton Partnership of Paterson nonprofit group. So he didn’t get around to checking the acceptances until about 5:10 p.m., he said.\n\nThe teenager clicked on Princeton first. The notice said he had been rejected. Jeferson moved on to Dartmouth.\n\n“No way,” he recalled saying aloud after seeing that Dartmouth accepted him. At first his words were somewhat hushed. He was alone at home. Then he repeated those two words – “No way” – again and again with the volume rising each time. Soon, the teenager was in full-scale celebration mode.\n\n“I was definitely not in my chair,” Jeferson said.\n\nWhen his mother came home, Jeferson shared the monumental news with her and they hugged. His father would not get in from work until later. Then Jeferson called the man who launched Kennedy’s College Ready program, Gilman Choudhury.\n\n“He was always there for me,” Jeferson said of Choudhury. “He helped me when I was not the person I am today.”\n\nMany of Kennedy’s most committed and ambitious students participate in Choudhury’s College Ready sessions. While other teenagers rush out of the school at the 3:15 pm dismissal, College Ready students head upstairs to the third-floor classroom where the group convenes more than two hours a day, several days a week, including Fridays.\n\nChoudhury has students in the program start doing SAT practice tests as freshmen. He takes them on college tours, enrolls them in weekend academic programs. At various times of the year, the College Ready students perform as the robotics team and do National History Day projects.\n\nChoudhury also requires them to perform 100 hours of community service, efforts than include cleaning up parks, distributing food to the hungry, and collecting toys for needy children around the holidays.\n\nFor Jeferson, Choudhury’s help went beyond the basic parameters of the College Ready program.\n\n“I used to stutter a lot,” the teenager said. “I was self-conscious about it. He used to make me speak at different things to get me out of my shell.”\n\nOn the evening that Jeferson got the good news about Dartmouth, Choudhury was with a group of six College Ready students involved in a special engineering program at Rutgers University. They had stopped to buy tacos at the student center when Choudhury’s phone rang.\n\nJeferson started the conversation by thanking his mentor for all the help he had provided. Choudhury said the teenager sounded out of breath and emotional.\n\n“I asked him, ‘What’s wrong?’ ” the College Ready coordinator recalled.\n\nThen the student announced his Ivy League acceptance. “I dropped my wallet,” Choudhury said.\n\nIt turned out that Columbia and Harvard had placed Jeferson on their wait lists. He had been accepted to nine other schools, including Georgia Tech, the University of California at Berkeley, and Rutgers.\n\nDartmouth’s financial aid package was by far the best and that made the decision an easy one, Jeferson said. “I’ll be able to graduate college debt-free,” he said, “and it won’t be hard on my parents.”\n\nJeferson plans to major in biology at Dartmouth. He said he wants to do research on stem cells, to find ways to prevent cancer from spreading.\n\nAfter college, Jeferson said he will remain committed to Paterson. “I want to do something to make a difference in the city,” he said. “So many people have helped me here. I want to give back.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/04/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/us/free-college-tuition-waive-biden-new-mexico-cec/index.html", "title": "Why free college is so elusive -- and how we can get closer to ...", "text": "(CNN) The idea of waiving college tuition falls in and out of vogue.\n\nLast year, President Joe Biden's plan to make tuition free at community colleges was cut from the Build Back Better plan, once again placing the concept of a nationwide tuition-free college program just out of reach.\n\nBefore that effort, former President Barack Obama tried (and failed) to waive the first two years of community college nationwide. After that, former Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders both had platforms advocating for tuition-free college nationwide during their respective runs.\n\nEfforts to waive college tuition have seen greater success at the state level.Most notably, lawmakers in New Mexico passed a bill earlier this year that would waive tuition for any student attending in-state public schools or tribal colleges -- joining a growing list of tuition-free state programs.\n\nNew Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 140, which expanded free college tuition to most residents, at Western New Mexico University in Silver City on March 4.\n\nAs the country continues to grapple with the student debt crisis , here's why a free college system continues to be so elusive and how it may still be attainable.\n\nEven at a local level, 'free college' is easier said than done\n\nThough many states have made recent pushes to waive college tuition for certain groups, subsidizing college education isn't new.\n\nThe GI Bill, enacted in 1944, provided veterans returning from World War II with tuition, books and supplies, equipment, counseling services, and \"subsistence\" for those wishing to continue their education, according to the National Archives.\n\nAbout 20 years later, in 1965, Pell Grants were first created -- and now represent the largest federal aid source for students pursuing post-secondary education.\n\nThere have been other pushes on the state level, like Georgia's Hope Scholarship , a merit-based award that launched in 1993 for students who sustain a 3.0 grade point average.\n\nWhen city or state officials attempt to waive tuition in some way -- whether for public four-year universities or two-year community colleges -- they're thinking about avoiding brain drain, said Elizabeth Bell, an assistant professor at Florida State University who researches higher education policy.\n\nThe GI Bill of Rights funded books, notebooks, and tuition and other fees, up to a total of $500 for an ordinary school year, for veterans. Here, ex-soldier students receive supplies for the term.\n\nshe said. That's why programs, like The goal, ultimately, is to preserve educational attainment and therefore enhance the economy,she said. That's why programs, like New York's Excelsior Scholarship , require those who participate to stay in-state after graduating.\n\nBut actually creating these programs is easier said than done. The issue of college affordability and making college as accessible as possible is one that actually has bipartisan support, Bell said -- but the pushback comes in the details.\n\nWhen it comes to universal programs -- that is, programs that unequivocally waive tuition and fees -- there can be pushback against giving money to families who could afford college without assistance, Bell said. Others worry that colleges could raise costs to capture more funding from the state, since most people wouldn't be paying the sticker price.\n\nThere are also arguments over whether to create first-dollar programs, where funding is given to students before any other aid or award-based funding, or to create last-dollar programs, which fill the gaps that aid and other financial awards don't cover. The issue with last-dollar programs is most of the money actually goes to higher-income families, who may not receive aid from other areas, Bell said.\n\nMost first-dollar programs actually exist at the local level, she said, since they support fewer students, making those programs easier to finance. On the other hand, a lot of state programs are last-dollar.\n\nAn exception to this rule is the Oklahoma Promise , a first-dollar state program that takes a more targeted approach. The scholarship primarily awards aid to families making less than $60,000 a year, and students who apply must also pass certain merit requirements.\n\nPolitically, it's complicated. If you're putting forth a program proposal that's first-dollar, but only benefits a select number of students, you're limiting the political support you could receive by excluding many middle-income families, who still struggle with the cost of higher education, Bell said.\n\n\"Across these different programs, it's really a matter of balancing politics, finances and equity,\" Bell said. \"And a lot of these programs have come under scrutiny because one of these things is out of balance.\"\n\nStudents walk on campus at the University of Oklahoma in March 2015.\n\nThere's also more to paying for college than just tuition -- such as housing, food, transportation and numerous other costs. The best programs, Bell said, are simple for students to understand and apply to, generous in what they cover, and include those wraparound services.\n\nShe used the Kalamazoo Promise in Michigan as an example -- a program that pays up to 100% of tuition and fees for four years for students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools. Though the funds cannot be transferred to things like room and board, the program provides access to coaches at both the high school and college level to help students in their transition to college.\n\nNot every program is created equal\n\nEven in places where free tuition programs are enacted, the benefits aren't always impactful.\n\nThe Urban Institute found that New York's Excelsior Scholarship, announced in 2017, sent 68% of its funds to families with incomes at or above $70,000 -- meaning that the lowest income students didn't receive the funds. Meanwhile, lower-income students still face other financial barriers, like the costs of books, meals plans, transportation and other categories that fall outside of tuition.\n\nThat's not all: Only about half of the students who received the scholarship in fall of 2018 actually kept the scholarship going into the following year -- a trend the researchers attributed in part to the amount of paperwork the scholarship requires, as well as some of the enrollment and credit completion criteria.\n\nThe complexity inherent in the scholarship and financial aid process is actually a huge barrier to students applying to college and their families, said Stephanie Owen, an assistant professor at Colby College who studies the economics of education.\n\nThen New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, announced his proposal for free tuition at state colleges on Jan. 3, 2017 to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. He was joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson.\n\nIt can be difficult for some families to even find out what scholarships and aid programs they are actually eligible for, before even getting to the arduous application processes each may require. Though there's often a large distinction between the sticker price of the college and what families actually pay, Owen said colleges don't give out financial aid offers until after the student is accepted.\n\nThat means that students have no idea how much they'll actually be required to pay until much later in the process, after they've decided where to apply, said Owen. And if you don't know how much help you'll get, that initial sticker price can discourage applicants, especially low-income ones.\n\n\"That's kind of odd, right?\" Owen said. \"Most things we buy, we know what the price is before we commit to them.\"\n\nLarger four-year universities often already have money set aside specifically for low-income students. Stanford University expanded its financial aid in 2021 -- guaranteeing that undergraduate students from families with annual incomes below $75,000 will not pay tuition, room or board. Ivy League schools like Harvard University and Cornell University have similar programs, as does the University of California\n\nOther large public schools, like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan, also have similar programs -- but UNC-Chapel Hill's program isn't guaranteed , and branches of Michigan require students to maintain a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher for the \"Go Blue Guarantee\" program.\n\nEven with access to college-specific financial aid, there are still hurdles. Navigating the FAFSA process or other paperwork hurdles isn't easy, and neither is getting into a top school with these kinds of financial resources.\n\nLocal, state and federal programs are all necessary for an equitable system\n\nSmaller, local and state programs for waiving tuition exist -- but they can be imperfect or temporary, in place for a few years and then gone . Colleges have financial aid, but eliminating full costs of tuition isn't always possible, and not every college has the resources to waive tuition for large groups.\n\nAnd a federal universal program, despite some efforts, seems elusive.\n\nNone of this means that equitable college access is completely out of our reach, though. There are intermediate steps being taken going in the right direction, Owen said.\n\nShe used the College Scorecard as an example, a tool through the US Department of Education that allows students to see how much people from different income levels pay on average, as well as other information like graduation rates and typical earnings after graduation.\n\nHaving that information in a clear and concise way is helpful, Owen said. But it does have its limits -- the average cost is not the exact cost, after all.\n\nThe University of Michigan's HAIL Scholarship is one path forward for colleges looking to provide affordable higher education.\n\nThere are other bright spots: The FAFSA Simplification Act, which passed Congress in 2020 , is expected to ease the FAFSA process for students. The HAIL Scholarship at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor provides full tuition and fees for certain low-income undergraduates, and lets students know of their scholarship acceptance before the admissions process, which limits financial uncertainty.\n\nThe expansion of the Pell Grant is another effort many are advocating for, particularly as moves for universal community college have failed at the federal level.\n\n\"It's not going to come from one program,\" Bell said, of creating a financially equitable universal college system. \"It's going to come from the interaction of the federal and the state programs trying to make college more affordable for all kids. And right now we're still not there.\"\n\nThat doesn't mean things are stuck where they are now, she said. It just means we're still at the beginning.", "authors": ["Leah Asmelash"], "publish_date": "2022/06/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/opinions/sat-waning-relevance-hemmer/index.html", "title": "Opinion: What the SAT's waning relevance really tells us - CNN", "text": "In this photo of 2016, a student looks at questions during a college test preparation class at a school in Bethesda, MD. The SAT exam will move from paper and pencil to a digital format, administrators announced Tuesday, saying the shift will boost its relevancy as more colleges make standardized tests optional for admission.\n\nEditor’s Note: Nicole Hemmer is an associate research scholar at Columbia University with the Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the author of “Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.” She co-hosts the history podcasts “Past Present” and “This Day in Esoteric Political History” and is co-producer of the podcast “Welcome To Your Fantasy.” The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author. View more opinion on CNN.\n\nCNN —\n\nThe SAT is going digital.\n\nThe end of the paper test, once a rite of passage for students clinging to freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils as they settled in for the three-hour exam, comes as the SAT itself is losing its place of prominence in college admissions. As the test came under fire in recent years for favoring skilled test-takers as well as White and wealthy students, more and more colleges moved to test-optional admissions. The pandemic accelerated that shift, with Ivy League colleges joining the move away from mandatory testing.\n\nNicole Hemmer Courtesy Nicole Hemmer\n\nThe College Board, which oversees the SAT, has said the test will not only be digital but shorter — two hours rather than three — with a wider range of questions. But in focusing on form rather than function, how the SAT is taken rather than what it reveals about the test-takers, the College Board has yet to solve the broader problem of the test’s shrinking relevance to college admissions.\n\nThat waning relevance is not just about the SAT, but the broader struggles that universities face as they attempt to admit and prepare a more diverse student body for a more precarious economy. It is a challenge that universities themselves have struggled with just as much as the College Board.\n\nSome argue that now is the time to do away with the SAT completely. A seemingly neutral measure of college preparedness, the test has long been embedded with all sorts of biases based on class, race and culture. Part of that was tied to the history of the test itself. The SAT emerged from the new IQ tests developed for the military during World War I. Those tests, though implemented as an objective assessment of intelligence, were freighted with racial, cultural and nativist biases.\n\nThese intelligence tests migrated to the College Board and universities in the 1920s and 1930s as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, and during World War II, became the sole test used by the College Board as a measure of college potential. They were seen at the time as a progressive initiative, to allow the Midwestern farm boy with raw natural intelligence to gain entry into the WASPish establishment of higher education. But the meritocratic idea was strongly influenced by race and sex: a young White native-born man. Even as the test was refined in the decades that followed, test developers repeatedly chose questions that performed well with White test-takers, reinscribing a set of racial and cultural norms into the exam.\n\nAnother kind of inequity in the SAT stemmed from the culture that had sprung up around SAT prep. Wealthy parents have poured thousands into test prep courses that many families never knew existed (much less had the funds to pay for). As a result, the purportedly meritocratic SAT continued to select for a particular kind of student, one that was on average Whiter and wealthier than the average high schooler.\n\nGetting rid of it is a fine idea, but while bracketing (or eliminating) the SAT addresses one possible form of inequality, it is minor compared to the other ways access to higher education remains inaccessible for many Americans. First, the SAT-optional admissions process still relies on a number of subjective and manipulatable measures, including personal essays and extracurriculars. And college education itself comes with a number of burdens. Most significant among these is the high sticker price of a college degree, a price that is disproportionately borne by students of color, whose debt burden tends to be higher and longer-lasting than White students. While a number of universities have moved away from loans and embraced need-based grants, the average student loan debt remains $30,000, according to data from US News and World Report, with many students facing a much steeper burden.\n\nBut there is a bigger challenge facing universities as well: a college degree is no longer a guarantee of middle-class stability. College degrees matter; overall, students who attend college are better off than those who don’t. But college graduates now enter a workforce rife with precarity and low wages, which, when compounded by heavy debt, pushes many graduates into a state of economic instability, with meager paychecks going to service their punishing debt loads. (These are circumstances made worse by certain degree programs, for-profit colleges, and predatory lenders.)\n\nThe digital SAT is not an answer to these problems, any more than MOOCs were (the Massive Open Online Courses that were all the rage in the 2000s). What is needed for more equitable higher education goes far beyond the SAT.\n\nYes, universities need different assessment tools that help inform universities what support students will need to succeed. But they also need policy-based solutions for the challenges facing higher ed: more support for community colleges and state universities to drive down costs, less interference from conservative policymakers opposed to the liberal arts, more flexibility for admissions policies that result in a diverse student body, and – above all – a fairer economy in which all workers, even those without a college degree, can secure a living wage. That, more than any change to the SAT, will create the atmosphere for more equitable education across the United States.\n\nAt the moment, however, the prospect of such changes seems out of reach. Though some level of student debt relief has broad support among the public, and loan forgiveness can be achieved through executive action, the Biden administration so far has been reluctant to act. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has just announced it will consider a challenge to affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. That leaves the conservative justices, who control two-thirds of the Court, in a position to make it even more difficult to achieve equity in higher education.\n\nIt is particularly disappointing that these two barriers would arise now, as so many universities have been seriously contemplating how to make access more equitable and diverse. It has been a long road to this moment: Universities in the United States were once places of deep formal inequality, with admissions often limited to White male students of means.\n\nCracking open the doors of higher ed took well over a century, as people of color, women and Jews fought for access and an end to quotas. Though a handful of colleges began to allow both men and women in the mid-19th century, it wasn’t until the late 1960s and 1970s that Ivy League schools allowed women. Racial integration likewise took more than a century, and in some schools required armed intervention to protect Black students trying to enroll.\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion’s newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nThat long fight to win admissions into universities was not just about educational equality. By the 1960s and 1970s, higher education was increasingly the path to middle-class stability. If that stability was to be equally (or at least more broadly) shared, then higher education had to welcome a far more diverse student body. Yet even as that student body became less segregated, inequalities — in access, student loan debt burdens and job opportunities – all persisted.\n\nThe SAT both reflected and reinforced those inequalities. A change to its format now will not undo that bias toward wealthy students. Instead, it’s time to rethink the test’s function in relation to what America’s system of higher education should strive for: how it can provide useful information to universities about how best to help their students succeed, particularly at a moment when policymakers and the courts are arrayed against them, determined to limit what tools educators have to make higher education – and the economy – more fair.", "authors": ["Nicole Hemmer"], "publish_date": "2022/01/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/06/24/cnbc-student-debt-crisis/29168475/", "title": "Looking for the next crisis? Try student debt", "text": "Kelley Holland\n\nCNBC\n\nThe numbers are staggering: more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, 40 million borrowers, an average balance of $29,000.\n\nIt's not hard to find indications that student debt is a large (and growing) problem. But unless you or someone you love holds student loans, it can be hard to feel the problem's immediacy.\n\nThat may not be the case for long. Mounting student loan debt is ricocheting through the United States, now affecting institutions and economic patterns that have been at the core of America's very might.\n\nMen and women laboring under student debt \"are postponing marriage, childbearing and home purchases, and...pretty evidently limiting the percentage of young people who start a business or try to do something entrepreneurial,\" said Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and the former Republican governor of Indiana. \"Every citizen and taxpayer should be concerned about it.\"\n\nThe high levels of student debt are also serving to perpetuate and even worsen economic inequality, undercutting the opportunity and social mobility that higher education has long promised. Americans almost universally believe that a college degree is the key to success and getting ahead—and the data shows that, generally speaking, college graduates still fare far better financially than those with just a high school diploma.\n\nBut for those who are saddled with massive student debt, even getting by can be a challenge, much less getting ahead.\n\n\"You wind up disadvantaged just as you begin. It has reduced the ability of our educational system to be a force for upward mobility, and for an equitable chance at upward mobility,\" said Melinda Lewis, associate professor of the practice at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. \"It is still true that you are better positioned if you go to college, but you are not as much better positioned if you have to go to college with debt.\"\n\nDebt crisis builds\n\nThere are several causes for the rapid increase in levels of student debt.\n\nFor one, despite the growing costs, Americans believe deeply in the importance of higher education. A survey of parents released this month by Discover Student Loans found that 95% believe college is somewhat or very important to their child's future. They have reason: In 2012, full-time workers with bachelor's degrees earned 60% more than workers with just a high school diploma.\n\nPolicymakers also encourage college attendance. In a speech earlier this year, President Obama called higher education \"one of the crown jewels of this country\" and said it was \"the single most important way to get ahead.\"\n\nThere is also the matter of \"credentialism,\" the trend in many professions to screen for ever higher qualifications for jobs that may not require them. A 2014 study by Burning Glass, a labor analytics firm, found that 42% of management job holders had bachelor's degrees, but 68% of job postings required them. In computer and mathematical jobs, 39% of employees had bachelor's degrees, but 60% of job listings called for them.\n\n\"Many middle-skill career pathways are becoming closed off to those without a bachelor's degree,\" the report concluded.\n\nThe confluence of those trends has led to a nearly unbroken increase in college attendance for almost 30 years. At the same time, though, the cost of college has risen for decades, far outstripping inflation.\n\nAs a 2012 economic analysis by The Hamilton Project, a policy research group, concluded: \"The cost of college is growing, but the benefits of college — and, by extension, the cost of not going to college — are growing even faster.\"\n\nThere is much debate over the reasons for the steep increase in college tuition. Purdue's Daniels has pointed to \"inelastic demand\" for higher education, which has given colleges room to raise prices, while others cite the decline in state funding for public education and the shrinking subsidies at private schools.\n\nWhatever the reason, there's no denying the cost of both a private and a public college degree has skyrocketed. Average tuition, fees, and room and board at a private, non-profit, four-year college were $42,419 for 2014-2015, up from $30,664 in real dollars in 2000-01. At public, four-year schools, costs for the 2014-15 school year, at $18,943, were up sharply from the $11,635 price tag in 2000-01, according to the College Board.\n\nThe federal government has stepped up its lending accordingly, and so have private student lenders. The total of private student loans outstanding grew rapidly from $55.9 billion in 2005 to $140.2 billion in 2011, fueled in part, perhaps, by the growing market for asset-backed securities backed by student loans, known as SLABS.\n\nWhile the expansion has provided more options for student borrowers — and the opportunity for those with high credit scores to refinance at lower rates — regulators have expressed concerns.\n\nIn a 2012 report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that many student borrowers may not have understood the difference between private student loans and government loans, and default rates on private student loans \"have spiked significantly since the financial crisis of 2008.\"\n\nLower birthrates, fewer small businesses\n\nRising student debt levels are changing how millions of people approach major milestones and core financial decisions, affecting longstanding social and economic patterns.\n\nConsider homeownership. Owning a home used to be a key marker of adulthood and maturity. But homeownership has plummeted among Americans under age 35, from 43.3% in the first quarter of 2005 to 34.6% in first quarter of 2015, according to the Census Bureau.\n\nMortgage lenders \"look at all debt obligations, and student debt would count toward that, which means the person...has to downgrade their housing expectations, and take out a loan lower than what they intended. Or in some cases, they say, 'Well, I'm going to hold back,'\" said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.\n\nThe association found in a recent survey that 23% of first-time buyers said it was hard for them to save for a down payment, and within that group, 57% said student debt was impeding their saving, up from 54% a year earlier.\n\nWhile a college education generally leads to higher income, \"growing student loan burdens can have direct impacts in terms of lost sales due to higher debt levels for builders focusing on the entry level market space,\" said Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders.\n\nTwenty-somethings are also putting off starting a family. The median age for a first birth has been increasing for years, standing most recently at age 26. And the birth rate among women aged 20 to 29 is now at a record low, and has been declining since at least 2008, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control.\n\nStudents laboring under the burden of student debt are also following different career paths, with important social implications. The need to repay loans is steering some away from professions like social work and health care and toward higher-paying jobs in tech and financial services.\n\nIn a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, the writers examined the effect of a move by a selective college to replace loans with grants. \"We find that debt causes graduates to choose substantially higher-salary jobs and reduces the probability that students choose relatively low-paying 'public interest' jobs,\" the researchers observed.\n\nWhile choosing a higher-paying field may help them repay their loans faster, it could also result in fewer graduates moving into low-paying but critical jobs like early childhood education.\n\nResearch has also found that the burden of student debt hinders innovation and entrepreneurship, a core component of the economic prowess of the United States. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania State studied the relationship between student debt and small business formation and found \"a significant and economically meaningful\" link: more student debt led to fewer small businesses being formed.\n\nStudent loan defaults are another burden on society. The three-yeardefault rate stands at roughly 13.7, and the average amount in default per borrower was just over $14,000 in the third quarter of 2014. Debt like that impedes the ability of borrowers to save for retirement at a time when millions of Americans are short on retirement savings. And it can have a ripple effect on the economy, in part because the federal government typically does not recoup the full amount in default (though it does get most, eventually).\n\n\"We're not going to see this create systemic risk,\" said Rohit Chopra, student loan ombudsman and assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, since the government either guarantees or owns most of the student loans and has the power to sue and to garnish wages, tax refunds, and federal benefits like Social Security when borrowers default. \"But it will create economic drag if it's unaddressed,\"he added.\n\nWhile some, like Mark Kantrowitz, a student financial aid policy expert and publisher of Edvisors.com, argue that student loans have not reached the level of \"crisis,\" most policymakers and experts agree that the trends are worrisome at the least and more should be done to ease the burden on borrowers.\n\nKantrowitz advocates for more programs to improve the financial literacy and budgeting skills of students and their parents, as well as better disclosures for student loans. \"We need to bring some sanity back to the system,\" he said.\n\nPolicymakers and academics are trying to develop solutions to the burgeoning student debt burden. Obama has proposed having the government cover the average cost of community college for students who maintain good grades, which could help ease the debt burden if it's adopted (though students would still be responsible for the cost of continuing their studies beyond community college).\n\nThe Obama administration has also expanded the Income-Based Repayment program, which enables students to make loan payments that are no more than a reasonable share of their discretionary income — generally 10% — over a longer period of time.\n\nQualifying borrowers who work full-time in public service jobs may also get some of the balance of their loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.\n\nSome states offer Children's Savings Accounts, which enable families and donors to put away money for children's college education. Research by Lewis and her colleague William Elliott, as well as other studies, indicate that these accounts encourage college attendance, particularly among lower-income Americans.\n\nSeveral schools have been expanding student aid. Stanford university, for example, announced this spring that tuition will be free for students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year, and several Ivy League schools have similar programs in place. It's worth noting, though, thatuniversities with those kinds of plans in place have also typically increased their tuition for the last several years and have substantial endowments.\n\nSome of the worst abuses in student lending have also been washed out of the system. Many student borrowers take out loans to attend for-profit colleges like the former Corinthian College, which abruptly ceased to exist in April, and the Department of Education in June announced it would forgive the debt of students who attended that school.\n\nThese efforts should certainly help to alleviate the burden on borrowers. But absent dramatic changes in the financing of higher education, student loan debt is expected to keep climbing, and that could have implications for us all.\n\n© CNBC is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/politics/student-loan-debt-forgiveness-what-matters/index.html", "title": "A crash course in student loan debt forgiveness - CNNPolitics", "text": "A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here\n\n(CNN) When the Department of Education announced massive loan forgiveness for former students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges system on Wednesday, it was the largest single effort by the Biden administration to help Americans pay down their student debt.\n\nThe administration's actions so far have largely focused on students who were defrauded by now-shuttered schools, like Corinthian. But the moves have also sharpened a debate on whether the rising cost of higher education is an undue burden for young adults. Opponents say that simply forgiving student debt is a moral hazard and penalizes people who paid theirs off already.\n\nI talked to CNN's Katie Lobosco , who covers the issue, about what happened on Wednesday and where it fits into the larger debate about student loans.\n\nOur conversation, conducted by email, is below.\n\nWhat's the news?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What's this latest move by the Biden administration, and how many people does it affect?\n\nLOBOSCO: Wednesday's action is the Biden administration's biggest move to cancel student debt to date, totaling $5.8 billion for 560,000 borrowers.\n\nIt will affect all borrowers who attended a Corinthian College at any time during its existence, dating back to 1995, and still have outstanding federal student loan debt.\n\nSome former Corinthian students previously qualified for student loan forgiveness, but the new action will ensure that all borrowers will receive debt relief automatically. They won't have to take action.\n\nHow is this possible?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: How is the administration able to simply forgive this debt? Why didn't Congress need to weigh in?\n\nLOBOSCO: The Department of Education has long had the power -- granted by Congress in the Higher Education Act -- to cancel federal student loan debt held by borrowers who were misled by their colleges or were enrolled at schools that engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain state laws.\n\nBut the department rarely used this power before 2015, when Corinthian Colleges and several other for-profit schools suddenly shut down in the face of federal and state investigations into their practices. Many schools were found to have misled prospective students with inflated job placement numbers and the transferability of their credits to other schools.\n\nAt that time, the Obama administration streamlined the process, known as borrower defense to repayment, making it easier for these borrowers to file forgiveness claims with the Department of Education. The agency was flooded with applications, and the Trump administration, which fought to change the policy, stopped processing the claims for more than a year. More than 100,000 applications were pending when Biden took office.\n\nSince then, the Department of Education has been chipping away at the backlog, speeding up the process by granting forgiveness to groups of borrowers at a time.\n\nWhat's a for-profit college?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What's the difference between a for-profit college and other colleges, which also cost a lot of money?\n\nLOBOSCO: The big difference is that for-profit colleges aim to make money, unlike non-profit public and private colleges and universities.\n\nNot all for-profit colleges are bad. They tend to confer certificates for trade-related professions that prepare students to quickly enter the workforce. In that respect, they attract a lot of nontraditional students -- like parents and military veterans who want to gain skills that make them marketable to new employers.\n\nBut many for-profit colleges have left thousands of students with degrees that did not help them get higher-paying jobs and that saddled them with student loan debt.\n\nHow have for-profit colleges changed?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What is the state of for-profit colleges right now? How has that industry changed in recent years?\n\nLOBOSCO: Enrollment at for-profit colleges in 2020 was about half of what it was in 2010, when more than 2 million students were enrolled, according to the Enrollment at for-profit colleges in 2020wasabout half of what it was in 2010, when more than 2 million students were enrolled, according to the College Board\n\nCorinthian Colleges -- which operated schools under the names of Everest, Heald College or WyoTech -- enrolled more than 110,000 students at 105 campuses at its peak in 2010. It sold most of its campuses in 2014 and shuttered the remaining ones in 2015.\n\nA year later, another for-profit college, known as ITT Tech, also suddenly closed after facing state and federal probes into its recruitment tactics.\n\nWhat's going on with debt forgiveness in general?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: This is but one effort. What does the larger debt forgiveness effort look like? How much student debt has been forgiven and how much is out there?\n\nLOBOSCO: Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education says it has approved the cancellation of $25 billion of student debt for 1.3 million borrowers as of this week.\n\nNearly $8 billion in forgiveness provides relief for 690,000 borrowers who were misled by their colleges. More than $8.5 billion has been canceled automatically for more than 400,000 borrowers who are permanently disabled who were previously eligible for debt relief but had not applied.\n\nThe administration has also temporarily expanded eligibility for what's known as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program -- which cancels remaining federal student loan debt after a public-sector worker has made 10 years of qualifying payments. The expansion has led to the cancellation of $6.8 billion for more than 113,000 borrowers.\n\nThe Biden administration has also made changes to the income-driven repayment plans , bringing millions of borrowers close to forgiveness.\n\nWhat about mass debt forgiveness?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: Canceling debt for people who were defrauded is one thing. A lot of Democrats want to see debt forgiveness for people who got legitimate degrees too. Where does that effort stand?\n\nLOBOSCO: Many Democrats and advocacy groups continue to call on Biden to broadly cancel up to $50,000 for each of the 43 million borrowers who have federal student loan debt.\n\nTo date, Biden has resisted that pressure and has instead taken a piecemeal approach to canceling student debt by expanding existing forgiveness programs.\n\nIn April, Biden said he is considering canceling student loan debt more broadly -- though he also doubled down on his resistance to canceling as much as $50,000 per borrower.\n\nOn the campaign trail, he proposed canceling a minimum of $10,000 in student debt per person as a response to the pandemic, as well as forgiving all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for those borrowers earning up to $125,000 a year.", "authors": ["Zachary B. Wolf"], "publish_date": "2022/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2016/09/08/ivy-league-clinches-top-3-spots-in-ranking-of-best-us-colleges/37421675/", "title": "ivy-league-clinches-top-3-spots-in-ranking-of-best-us-colleges", "text": "Patrick Foster\n\nCorrections & clarifications: This story was updated to remove an accompanying video about college rankings.\n\nYale remains the top university in the United States, according to new data released Thursday by College Factual. The private school in New Haven, Conn. is followed by Harvard (which was No. 5 in last year's ranking) and the University of Pennsylvania (which dropped from the No. 2 spot).\n\nDuke University, which ranked third last year, slid to the fourth spot, just ahead of Stanford University. Amherst College, Brown University, Cornell, Princeton and Notre Dame round out the top 10.\n\nCollege Factual examines a unique set of factors when putting together their annual ranking, which feature appearances from the nation's service academies — Naval Academy (22), Air Force (33) and Military Academy (47).\n\n\n\n\"Many college rankings focus highly on inputs, such as student test scores, and often include subjective elements such as surveys. College Factual rankings are different as they focus highly on outputs, such as graduation rates and student loan default rates,\" says College Factual CEO Bill Phelan.\n\nThese rankings differ from other lists and, according to Phelan, it's for good reason. Instead of burying methodology in fine print at the bottom of the list, College Factual puts theirs up front. Freshman retention rates, the number of full-time teachers and student loan default rates are all key components in the final rankings.\n\n\"We also rank colleges on many different aspects of the education they provide, from overall quality, to best value, to best for a specific major. At the end of the day though we want students to go beyond just rankings to discover colleges that are a great match for them all-around.\"\n\nHere's a closer look at the top 10:\n\nThis story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/09/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/04/05/yale-law-school-masterpiece-cakeshop-religious-discrimination-column/3354031002/", "title": "Yale Law School gives in to anti-religious bigotry in new policies", "text": "Samuel Adkisson\n\nOpinion contributor\n\nWhat happens at our nation’s elite law schools rarely stays there.\n\nThat is why recent events at Yale Law School are so disturbing. In an effort to appease campus protesters, Yale announced that it would begin discriminating against religious students. This should concern all who value intellectual diversity and religious freedom. But even more troubling is the fact that this anti-religious bigotry is unlikely to confine itself to the ivory tower for long.\n\nIn February, the Yale Federalist Society scheduled an event with Kristen Waggoner, an attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the nation’s premier religious liberty organizations. Waggoner recently argued Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission before the Supreme Court and won in a 7-2 vote. The case involved anti-religious discrimination against a Colorado baker.\n\nAs Justice Elena Kagan explained, the government acted unconstitutionally because it exhibited “hostility to religious views.”\n\nRead more commentary:\n\nI was assaulted at Berkeley because I'm conservative. Free speech is under attack.\n\nFrom dog rape to white men in chains: We fooled the biased academic left with fake studies\n\nI know college admissions offices from the inside — schools basically sign off on scandal\n\nOne might expect an event with a successful Supreme Court advocate to be welcomed at an elite law school. But before the event had even taken place, more than 20 student organizations publicly condemned the event and speaker.\n\nThe problem? Waggoner's orthodox Christian beliefs and a commitment to religious liberty. Parroting Southern Poverty Law Center talking points, protesters claimed she worked for a \"homophobic, transphobic hate group.\" Never mind that Alliance Defending Freedom has won nine Supreme Court cases in the past seven years.\n\nProtesters get administrative support\n\nPar for the course at Ivy League institutions, a list of demands soon followed. The organizations called on Dean Heather Gerken to implement policies that would make it more difficult for students to work at “discriminatory” organizations, like those promoting religious liberty. They also asked her to consider denying admission to applicants who worked on certain religious liberty efforts before law school. Such lists are normally good for a laugh. And this one seemed no different.\n\nBut in late March, Yale Law School adopted a novel tactic: one-upping the protesters. It announced three major policy changes that went further than many of the protesters’ demands, all under the guise of an expanded nondiscrimination policy.\n\nThe new policies require all employers to swear that, when hiring students or graduates who benefit from certain Yale funding, they will not consider an applicant’s “religion,” “religious creed,” “gender identity” or “gender expression,” among other factors. The effect of this, for instance, is if a Yale Law student or graduate wishes to work for an organization that does consider religion in hiring — say a Catholic organization or Jewish advocacy group — Yale will cut them off from three important programs.\n\nFirst, Yale will ban them from receiving the school’s “summer public interest funding.” This is more important than it sounds. Between students’ first and second years of law school, they typically volunteer at nonprofits or in government. (Most law firms, quite understandably, are not interested in hiring first-year students.) To help defray students’ living expenses during this first summer, Yale offers financial grants. Last summer, for example, Yale provided more than $1.9 million to more than 200 students.\n\nSecond, Yale will ban graduates from participating in the school’s loan assistance program. The basic idea is simple: If a student graduates, works full time, and makes below a certain income threshold, Yale will help with their loan payments. Sound too good to be true? Most top law schools have similar programs. Yale previously boasted that this program covered “all jobs in all sectors.” No longer.\n\nThird, Yale will ban them from receiving one of the law school’s 30-plus post-graduate fellowships. These prestigious fellowships offer a year of funding for students to serve in a nonprofit or government position.\n\nStanding up to overt religious discrimination\n\nUnder the guise of nondiscrimination, Yale Law School has announced it will blatantly discriminate. A student is barred from aid if she works at a synagogue that gives preference to Jewish applicants, but not if she works at an organization that peddles anti-Semitism yet hires all comers. A graduate is blocked from funding if she works for the Christian Legal Society, but not if she works for the Freedom from Religion Foundation. And a graduate is not eligible to receive loan assistance if she is a professor at Brigham Young University, but is eligible if she works for Berkeley.\n\nYale Law School, under the leadership of Dean Gerken, has adopted policies of overt religious discrimination. Those who value religious toleration and intellectual diversity must stand up and demand that these policies stop.\n\nBut these policies — and the ideas animating them — will not confine themselves to the ivory tower for long. What happens at law schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford today foreshadows the broader cultural trends of tomorrow. I don't like what I see.\n\nWhat can be done?\n\n►The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold hearings on the state of legal education in the United States. It is biased, broken and getting worse.\n\n►Prospective students should consider whether a university respects intellectual and religious pluralism when deciding whether to attend. It makes a difference.\n\n►Donors should withhold funding from institutions that fail to respect religious and intellectual diversity. There are already too many.\n\nIn its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, the Supreme Court ruled against religious discrimination. Yale Law School has taken the opposite path, institutionalizing anti-religious bigotry in its new policies. It is a decision that must not go unchallenged.\n\nSamuel Adkisson is a 2018 graduate of Yale Law School and an attorney in Arlington, Virginia. He previously served as president of the Yale Federalist Society.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/04/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2019/11/23/havard-yale-game-stopped-protesters-climate-change-halftime/4284156002/", "title": "Protesters stop Harvard-Yale game at halftime by storming the field", "text": "Activists carrying banners in protest of \"climate injustice\" stormed the field before the start of the third quarter of Saturday's game between Harvard and Yale, causing a lengthy delay and leading police to handcuff and detain several protesters.\n\nGroups of students from both universities marched toward midfield at the Yale Bowl after the band had finished performing and as players were warming up for the start of the second half. One long banner carried by several students said both Yale and Harvard \"are complicit in climate injustice.\"\n\nProtesters called for the two schools, longtime Ivy League rivals, to divest from fossil fuels and cancel their Puerto Rico debt holdings. Endowment holdings at Harvard and Yale are managed in part by fund managers and private equity firms invested in Puerto Rican debt.\n\nThe number of protesters grew into the hundreds, all within a stretch of space on either side of the large Yale logo at midfield.\n\n\"Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go,\" chanted protesters.\n\nA public-address announcement asked protesters to leave the field \"as a courtesy to the players,\" and that \"as a courtesy to both teams, the game must resume.”\n\nWINNERS AND LOSERS:Highs and lows from Week 13 in college football\n\nPOINT PROVED:No. 2 Ohio State passes first test in Penn State victory\n\nBULLDOGS SCARE:No. 4 Georgia survives challenges from Texas A&M\n\nAfter about an hour, police formed a line and moved forward, from the Yale sideline toward the Harvard sideline. A protest leader encouraged all “internationals” to leave. An agreement was reached to escort the remainders off, with one police officer to every two protesters.\n\nThose who did not leave then – perhaps one or two dozen – were informed by Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins that they would be arrested.\n\nYale officials said in a statement handed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter that the school “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”\n\n“It is regrettable,” a statement attributed to the Ivy League said, “that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities.”\n\nHarvard led 15-3 at halftime against the favored Bulldogs, which entered Saturday tied with Dartmouth atop the Ivy League standings and ranked No. 25 in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Crimson then led by 17 points in the fourth quarter before Yale rallied to force overtime. A touchdown in the second extra period gave the Bulldogs the win and a share of the conference title.\n\nThe two universities have met 136 times since 1875, with Yale holding a 68-60-8 lead in the series. Only two other rivalries have met more often in the history of college football.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/11/23"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_7", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/sport/rob-gronkowski-retirement-spt/index.html", "title": "NFL star Rob Gronkowski announces his retirement", "text": "(CNN) Four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski, a tight end in the NFL for 11 seasons as a member of the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced his retirement Tuesday on social media.\n\nThis is Gronkowski's second time retiring from the NFL, having previously hung up his cleats in New England after playing from 2010 to 2018 with the Patriots before returning in 2020 to play two seasons with the Buccaneers.\n\nGronkowski, 33, wrote on social media , \"I want to thank the whole entire first class Buccaneers organization for an amazing ride, trusting me to come back to play and help build a championship team. I will now be going back into my retirement home, walking away from football again with my head held high knowing I gave it everything I had, good or bad, every time I stepped out on the field.\n\n\"The friendships and relationships I have made will last forever, and I appreciate every single one of my teammates and coaches for giving everything they had as well. From retirement, back to football and winning another championship and now back to chilling out, thank you to all.\"\n\nOver his 11 NFL seasons, Gronkowski was part of four Super Bowl-winning teams, three times with the Patriots and again with the Buccaneers.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kevin Dotson"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/giants/2018/08/21/last-dance-victor-cruz-announces-retirement-nfl-joins-espn/1047475002/", "title": "Ex-New York Giants WR Victor Cruz announces retirement from NFL ...", "text": "EAST RUTHERFORD — The music has stopped playing in the NFL for Victor Cruz, but the former New York Giants star wide receiver promises that he isn't done dancing.\n\nAt 31, Cruz announced his retirement from the league Tuesday, informing The Record and NorthJersey.com shortly before officially making the news public with a video posted to Uninterrupted's YouTube channel.\n\nThe Giants released Cruz in February 2017 after seven seasons during which he emerged as one of the franchise's most popular players. His salsa dancing in the end zone to celebrate touchdowns made him famous, as did his remarkable rise to incredible heights as a Super Bowl champion with the Giants in 2011.\n\nBut when Cruz, now an uber celebrity and NFL analyst, is asked to what moment he goes back as the most unforgettable of his time with the Giants, his mind does not go to the Super Bowl, the fame he earned or the countless dances he did.\n\nCruz goes back to the moment when an undrafted long shot from Paterson, N.J., left everyone in awe as a rookie in a preseason game against the Jets.\n\n\"I close my eyes, when I go back: it's always the first one: preseason game, rookie year, up the sideline, first catch ever, first anything, against the Jets,\" Cruz told The Record and NorthJersey.com on Tuesday morning, the news of his retirement still flooding social media. \"For that one to be a touchdown out of the gate, it was like, my season, my career could have ended right there, and I had already accomplished so much. Being from New Jersey, playing in Giants Stadium, scoring a touchdown like that, in front of my family and my mom, that moment alone takes the cake for me.\"\n\nThe story continues below the gallery.\n\nCruz had been a Giants fixture since August of 2010, when the undrafted rookie from UMass who grew up in the shadow of the Meadowlands stunned everyone with a breakthrough performance in a preseason game against the Jets. He rose to stardom with the Giants, celebrating his touchdowns with his trademark salsa dance and winning a Super Bowl in the 2011 season.\n\n\"Obviously Victor had a terrific career and a great Giant, and a guy who kind of exploded onto the scene in this preseason game versus the Jets coming up in 2010,\" Giants quarterback Eli Manning said Tuesday, adding: \"Really just had a great feel for the offense, for his routes in that slot, and he was tough to cover. Running down the field, breaking in, we gave him a lot of options. He mastered some of those concepts and gave him a great opportunity to get open and make big plays for us. Tremendous player, and a great guy. He was in the locker room a few weeks ago. I got to talk with him and hang out with him. Obviously, I wish him all the best going forward. I think he’s gone to the dark side and has gone into the media [laughter]. I wish him all the best going over there.\"\n\n\n\nOnly Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall had more 100-yard receiving games than Cruz from 2011 to Week 6 of the 2014 season when the latter tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during a game against the Eagles in Philadelphia.\n\nFollowing his release from the Giants, Cruz signed with the Chicago Bears last summer. He was cut in the preseason, and spent the last year waiting for an offer that never came.\n\n\"When a year passes without a phone call, that's kind of the wake up call,\" Cruz said. \"That's the biggest lesson I've learned: you have your moment when you make it to the top, and mine came so quickly. Everything's great, your career is ascending, and then in a blink of an eye, in Year 4 for me, I'm gonna play 15-20 years, win a couple championships, and then after Year 7, I'm done. That's what the league is telling me.\"\n\nIn trying to make it to the NFL, Cruz earned respect from so many along the way.\n\nHe once was a North Jersey teenager harboring a dream to play basketball at Duke University, not the NFL for his beloved Dallas Cowboys, let alone the Giants for whom he would star, becoming a worldwide celebrity of football and fashion.\n\nOpposing coaches in the now-defunct Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League used to complain about how that kid wearing No. 9 for Paterson Catholic (now closed) was too physical, and all he did was push off in the end zone. That was the reason he was catching all those touchdown passes, they said.\n\nCruz committed to UMass on scholarship, but first had to attend prep school. Then he had to come home and work in retail at Garden State Plaza in Paramus after his grades at UMass led to his dismissal not only from the team, but the school, and not once, but twice.\n\nNow he's a role model for all those who dream of following in his footsteps, including those involved with the Boys and Girls Club of America, which has honored him on several occasions through his foundation.\n\n\"My story, it wasn't easy to get here,\" Cruz said. \"But I wouldn't change a thing.\"\n\nIt was Cruz's story that inspired many around the league: the kid who did that dance to honor his grandmother and his Puerto Rican heritage, the one who outworked the crowd at the bottom to make it to the top.\n\nThere's a reason why former Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly visited Cruz in a Philadelphia hospital the morning after Cruz's football world changed forever back in 2014 - and why Giants coach Pat Shurmur stepped to the microphone for his Tuesday news conference and opened with a salute to a player he never coached.\n\n\"What a great Giant,\" Shurmur said. \"I remember playing against him when I was [coaching] in Philly and we were certainly well aware of the impact he could have on a ball game. I had a chance to meet him and be around him, and he certainly doesn’t need an invite from me, but much like all the ex-Giants, I look forward to seeing him at practice any time he wants to be here. So, congratulations to him.\"\n\nCruz will make his ESPN debut Wednesday during the 9 a.m. hour on both Get Up! and SportsCenter. He visited the Giants here at training camp two weeks ago after staying away for much of last year, still trying to come to grips with his exit.\n\nThis time, Cruz said he felt at home again.\n\n\"I'll always be blue 80 in New York in my opinion, in my mind, in my heart,\" Cruz said. \"To me, the blue 80 jersey will always say Cruz on the back of it, New York City. I hope the fans don't lose that. That's where I was born, essentially, from a football perspective, and [the Giants and the New York City area] will always be home, always be family.\"\n\nEmail: stapleton@northjersey.com\n\nMore NY Giants news\n\nNY Giants:Growing pains continue for remade offensive line\n\nAmani Toomer:Medical marijuana discussion in Fort Lee brings out former NY Giants receiver\n\nNY Giants:Did Big Blue's decision to draft Saquon Barkley gift a franchise QB to Jets?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/sport/tom-brady-retirement-nfl-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Tom Brady officially announces retirement from NFL - CNN", "text": "The 44-year-old, arguably the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, announced the news on social media\n\n\"I have always believed the sport of football is an 'all-in' proposition -- if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game,\" he said.\n\n\"There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life. This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore.\n\n\"I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention. I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved.\n\n\"My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nBrady celebrates after the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 at Super Bowl 51.\n\nBrady has just finished his 22nd season in the NFL -- and second with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\n\nDuring his 22-year career, Brady has won seven Super Bowl titles -- six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- and he retires as the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards (84,520), touchdown passes (624), completions (7,263), regular season wins (243), playoff wins (35) and Super Bowl MVPs (five). He has also played in and won more regular-season games in his career than any other quarterback.\n\nOver the weekend, ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington and The Boston Globe, had reported that Brady was retiring, citing unnamed sources.\n\nBut on Sunday, a source familiar with the situation told CNN that \"Brady contacted (Tampa Bay) Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht (on Saturday) to inform him he has yet to make a final decision about his future.\"\n\nBut after saying on Monday that he hadn't made decision on retiring, Brady confirmed the news on Tuesday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Tom Brady throws Super Bowl trophy from one boat to another Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tom Brady throws Super Bowl trophy from one boat to another 00:45\n\nIn his announcement, he thanked his Bucs teammates, coaching staff, family and agents.\n\n\"My playing career has been such a thrilling ride, and far beyond my imagination, and full of ups and downs,\" Brady continued. \"When you're in it every day, you really don't think about any kind of ending.\n\n\"As I sit here now, however, I think of all the great players and coaches I was privileged to play with and against -- the competition was fierce and deep, JUST HOW WE LIKE IT. But the friendships and relationships are just as fierce and deep. I will remember and cherish these memories and re-visit them often. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.\"\n\nThe Bucs thanked Brady for the part he played with the team on Twitter, saying : \"Forever a part of Buccaneers history. Thank you for everything, Tom Brady.\"\n\n\"The future is exciting,\" Brady said.\n\nHe added: \"Exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\"\n\n\"What a ride @tombrady ! So many memories! When I met you over 15 years ago, I didn't know the first thing about football.\" she wrote.\n\n\"But cheering for you and seeing you do what you love most made me learn about this wonderful game to the point that I seriously believed I knew more than the referees! We always had a special champions playlist for every drive on our way to the game. As a family, we always prayed for you, celebrated and supported you in every game, cheered every win and suffered with every loss.\"\n\nShe added, \"I'm so proud of you, and of everything you have had to overcome physically and emotionally over the years.\"\n\nNFL icon\n\nSelected 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft by the Patriots, Brady played 20 seasons in Foxborough.\n\nHe left New England as a free agent after the 2020 season and signed with the Bucs where he led the team to a Super Bowl win in his first season there.\n\nBrady walks off the Raymond James Stadium field after a game.\n\nWith the Super Bowl win with Tampa Bay, Brady joined Peyton Manning as the only starting quarterbacks in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with multiple teams.\n\nBrady is the first quarterback in league history to lead his team to seven Super Bowl wins, surpassing Terry Bradshaw (four) and Joe Montana (four). Brady's 10 Super Bowl appearances is more than any franchise in the Super Bowl era -- the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers each have eight.\n\nIn his final season, Brady led the league in passing yards (5,316) and touchdowns (43) and earned an NFL-best 15th Pro Bowl selection.\n\nBrady was named to the league's 2000s All-Decade Team, the 2010s All-Decade Team and the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.\n\nPatriots owner Robert Kraft paid his respects to Brady's career, saying in a statement that: \"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career.\n\n\"A generation of football fans have grown up knowing only an NFL in which Tom Brady dominated. He retires with nearly every NFL career passing record, yet the only one that ever mattered to him was the team's win-loss record. In his 20 years as a starter his teams qualified for the playoffs 19 times. He led his teams to 10 Super Bowls, winning an NFL-record seven championships. In a team sport like football, it is rare to see an individual have such a dominant impact on a team's success.\n\n\"You didn't have to be a Patriots fan to respect and appreciate his competitiveness, determination and will to win that fueled his success. As a fan of football, it was a privilege to watch. As a Patriots fan, it was a dream come true.\n\n\"I have the greatest respect for Tom personally and always will. His humility, coupled with his drive and ambition, truly made him special. I will always feel a close bond to him and will always consider him an extension of my immediate family.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED See Tom Brady nail 'Hamilton' rap with late-night host Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Tom Brady nail 'Hamilton' rap with late-night host 01:35\n\nNFL commissioner Roger Goodell also paid his tributes to Brady in a statement on Tuesday.\n\n\"Tom Brady will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play in the NFL,\" he said. \"An incredible competitor and leader, his stellar career is remarkable for its longevity but also for the sustained excellence he displayed year after year.\n\n\"Tom made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. His record five Super Bowl MVP awards and seven Super Bowl championships set a standard that players will chase for years.\n\n\"He inspired fans in New England, Tampa and around the world with one of the greatest careers in NFL history. It has been a privilege to watch him compete and have him in the NFL. We thank him for his many contributions to our game and wish Tom and his family all the best in the future.\"", "authors": ["Ben Morse"], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/02/01/tom-brady-retires-nfl-quarterback/9297274002/", "title": "Tom Brady officially retires: QB says on social media his career over", "text": "A day after saying he was evaluating his options concerning his future, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady officially retired from the NFL.\n\nBrady made the announcement via social media on Tuesday morning.\n\n\"I have always believed the sport of football is an 'all-in' proposition – if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game,\" Brady said. \"There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.\n\n\"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention. I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nWINNERS, LOSERS OF BRADY RETIRING:Buccaneers QB's plan sends shockwaves through NFL\n\nWHO WILL BE NEXT TOM BRADY?:Probably no one, but these seven quarterbacks might have a shot\n\nBrady, 44, led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns this season and his final game was the NFC Divisional loss at home to the Los Angeles Rams.\n\nUSA TODAY Sports reported Saturday that Brady was set to announce his retirement after 22 seasons.\n\n\"Tom Brady will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play in the NFL. An incredible competitor and leader, his stellar career is remarkable for its longevity but also for the sustained excellence he displayed year after year,\" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.\n\n\"Tom made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. His record five Super Bowl MVP awards and seven Super Bowl championships set a standard that players will chase for year.\"\n\nNEVER MISS A MOMENT: Subscribe to our NFL newsletter to stay informed!\n\nOn Monday, Brady said on his SiriusXM podcast \"Let's Go\" that he wasn’t ready to announce plans for his future.\n\nBrady's retirement brings an end to a storied career with seven Super Bowl titles, three MVP and five Super Bowl MVP awards and 15 Pro Bowl selections.\n\nAfter being selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft by the New England Patriots, Brady got his opportunity the next season in Week 2 when starter Drew Bledsoe was hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. Brady started the next week against the Indianapolis Colts, leading them to a 44-13 victory.\n\nHe set NFL career marks for touchdown passes (624), passing yards (84,250) and wins as a starting quarterback while also setting league records for playoff wins, touchdowns and passing yards.\n\nOPINION:Brady's retirement serves as rare peek into legendary QB's human side\n\nOPINION:Brady's legacy also includes blueprint he provided on NFL player empowerment\n\n\"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career,\" Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a statement. \"A generation of football fans have grown up knowing only an NFL in which Tom Brady dominated.\"\n\nIf there is one blemish on his record, it came during the 2015 AFC championship when the Colts accused Brady of using a deflated football.\n\nThe NFL investigated and found that it was “more probable than not” that Brady did use a football that was not up to league standards.\n\nHe was suspended four games, and the Patriots were fined $1 million and lost several draft picks because of the incident.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/buccaneers/2022/02/01/tom-brady-retires-official-patriots-buccaneers/9298370002/", "title": "Tom Brady retires: Legendary QB walks away from NFL as the GOAT", "text": "The greatest to ever do it is walking away.\n\nFormer Tampa Bay Buccaneer and New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady officially announced his retirement Tuesday morning, just one day after he said he was contemplating his options.\n\nBrady, 44, has played in the league half his life, with 22 full seasons to his name, two of which came with Tampa Bay after he left New England after the 2019 season.\n\nBrady now walks away with a commanding grip on several NFL records, many of which — at first blush — would appear to be impossible to reach. Perhaps the most impressive of those relate to his success, and his teams’ successes, in the postseason. Brady started 24 conference championship games or Super Bowls in his career. Simply put, he dominated the league.\n\n\"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore,\" Brady said Tuesday in the post that announced his retirement. \"I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.\n\nNFL NEWSLETTER: Sign up and don't miss a Super Bowl moment\n\n\"I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nHere's everything we know about the G.O.A.T. walking away:\n\nHow did Tom Brady decide to retire?\n\nOn Saturday, USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones confirmed that Brady would be announcing his impending retirement. Brady, after the Buccaneers were eliminated from the playoffs in a 30-27 loss in the divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams, deflected on questions about his future, saying: \"I haven’t put a lot of thought into it.\"\n\nBrady's comments about his future, however, had notably softened from previous seasons, when he had said in no uncertain terms that he would be back and looked to play well into his mid-40s. After the loss against the Rams, Brady cited his family as an important factor in determining his future.\n\nOn Monday, in an appearance on the \"Let's Go\" podcast with Jim Gray, Brady said he was still contemplating his next steps and added: \"I'm not going to race to some conclusion on that.\"\n\nThen, just hours after that podcast published, Brady posted his announcement Tuesday morning on his social media channels and thanked former teammates, executives, coaches and fans in a lengthy statement. He also took the opportunity to thank his family for their support throughout his career.\n\nESPN had been the first outlet to report Saturday on Brady’s impending retirement.\n\nWhy did Tom Brady retire?\n\nWith increasing frequency, Brady has mentioned that his family and a desire to spend more time with them would be one of the main reasons why he would walk away. The recent increase of transparency in his thinking, alone, pointed to a rare glimpse into his human side.\n\nHis reasons for leaving New England had, in part, a lot to do with the grueling grind that comes with preparing for an NFL season and weekly games. While he found a more relaxed approach in Tampa Bay under coach Bruce Arians, preparing for opponents and seasons is still taxing. After 22 seasons, he has accomplished all there is to accomplish in the sport.\n\nBrady has also ventured into several successful business and media ventures, not limited to his health, wellness and recovery brand TB 12 Sports, in partnership with personal trainer and friend Alex Guerrero. Now that he won't have to game plan and practice, he's expected to give those ventures more time.\n\n\"The future is exciting,\" Brady said in his retirement announcement before citing three companies that he cofounded and would look to continue to grow. \"As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\"\n\nWhat will Tom Brady's legacy be?\n\nUndoubtedly, it will be as the greatest quarterback — and player — of all time. It's not just the poise and methodical approach he took toward seeking competitive advantages, it's the metronomic consistency he embodied when he played. In fact, his retirement announcement alone is sending ripples across the league that he dominated.\n\nBut, on the business side of things, Brady also provided a blueprint for player empowerment. He sought independent treatments for his body that he felt were in his best interests. It's hard to argue with the results. He focused on pliability and healthy eating and became a paradigm of dependability, even into his mid-40s. He was an advocate for improvements in player rights and asserting more control over offseason workout practices. And, in his departure from the Patriots, he also showed the importance of wielding agency and control in player movements.\n\nBrady even controlled the narrative in the media over the final seasons of his career, launching several video stories in which he directed what information got out, and how.\n\nMuch of this can be traced all the way back to his days in Ann Arbor, as the University of Michigan quarterback who just happened to get selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft.\n\nWhat are others saying about Tom Brady?\n\nTributes have poured in from all corners of the NFL and sporting world. Former Patriots teammates shared their favorite Tom Brady stories.\n\nNFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Brady \"made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments.\" Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians called it \"an honor\" just to coach him.\n\nSaid Patriots owner Robert Kraft: \"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career.\"\n\n\"I have always admired & respected his competitiveness, his dedication, his discipline, and his commitment to being the best,\" friend and former competitor Peyton Manning said.\n\nWhat are Tom Brady’s statistical accomplishments?\n\nAs mentioned above, Brady will likely be untouchable for several NFL records in the decades to come — if not for the rest of the league’s history.\n\nTo start with some of the more notable ones, Brady walks away with the NFL record for most career passing yards in both the regular season (84,520) and the playoffs (13,049). He also has thrown for more touchdowns (624) than anyone.\n\nHe has NFL records for most Super Bowl appearances (10), victories (seven), Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards (five).\n\nThe list goes on and on. We took a look at some of Brady’s more interesting stats here.\n\nWhat's next for the NFL (and the Buccaneers)?\n\nThere will never be another Tom Brady. He's the product of a perfect storm of talent, drive and franchise stability. Still, there's a crop of young passers who might come close.\n\nThe Bucs will now need to find Brady's replacement and have some decisions to make about a roster that is still talented, but will look very different. Backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert is set to hit free agency, so he may be on the move. That leaves third-string passer Kyle Trask, a second-round rookie Tampa selected in the 2021 draft, as the only quarterback currently left on the roster.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/03/15/nfl-free-agency-2022-news-rumors-contracts-players-teams/7046418001/", "title": "NFL free agency 2022: News, rumors on all of Tuesday's deals", "text": "The NFL had its initial rush of free-agency deals Monday, but the first wave isn't over.\n\nThe tampering window featured a slew of players and teams coming to agreements before contracts can become official Wednesday at the start of a new league year. But there are still many of the top free agents who remain uncommitted. Expect more action soon in the market, as well as more trades possibly coming together.\n\nCheck back with USA TODAY Sports often throughout Tuesday and the entire week for all the latest news and buzz on the free-agent market and what deals could be materializing:\n\nMORE:Tom Brady's stunning return to NFL was a decision we should have seen coming\n\nNFL NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get football news delivered to your inbox\n\nBrowns to sign dynamic return specialist Jakeem Grant\n\nThe Cleveland Browns and wide receiver/return specialist Jakeem Grant have agreed to a three-year contract, according to multiple reports.\n\nGrant - a sixth-round draft pick by the Miami Dolphins in 2016 - was traded by the Dolphins to the Chicago Bears on Oct. 5, 2021 and became a Pro Bowl selection. In his six NFL seasons, Grant has returned a combined six punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns.\n\nLast season, rookies Demetric Felton and Anthony Schwartz primarily handled punt and kickoff return duties. As a team, the Browns averaged 7.2 yards per punt return and 20.7 yards per kickoff return. By comparison, Grant has averaged 10.3 yards on punt returns and 24.5 yards on kick returns during his career.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nSaints, Marcus Maye agree to contract\n\nWith safety Marcus Williams agreeing to a deal with the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints got busy gathering in reinforcements for the secondary.\n\nThe Saints and former New York Jets safety Marcus Maye have agreed to a three-year, $28.5 million contract, according to multiple reports.\n\nAfter being a second-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft by the Jets, Maye played five seasons with the team. A torn Achilles landed Maye on injured reserve after appearing in six games during the 2021 season, during which he played on the franchise tag.\n\nOn Monday, the Jets had put work into bolstering their secondary, with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Jordan Whitehead and former Seattle Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed agreeing to join the Jets.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nRavens to bolster o-line with Morgan Moses\n\nOffensive tackle Morgan Moses has agreed to a three-year, $15 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens, according to multiple reports.\n\nMoses was a third-round pick by Washington in the 2014 NFL draft, and spent seven seasons with the team before signing a one-year contract with the New York Jets in 2021.\n\nThe Ravens have a need at the tackle position after trading Orlando Brown last offseason and with Alejandro Villanueva announcing his retirement last week. Ronnie Stanley — the No. 6 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft — has appeared in just seven games the previous two seasons while dealing with ankle injuries.\n\nMoses started all but one game last season with the Jets, and started every game for six consecutive seasons for Washington.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nGiants will sign Tyrod Taylor to back up Daniel Jones\n\nThe Giants wanted an upgrade to the insurance policy behind Daniel Jones, hoping to avoid the backup quarterback disaster that unfolded last season, and now they have one.\n\nVeteran Tyrod Taylor has agreed to terms with the Giants on a two-year deal worth up to a maximum value of $17 million, including $8.5 million guaranteed, an individual with knowledge of the situation confirmed to NorthJersey.com and USA TODAY Network on Monday night.\n\nInitial value for Taylor's deal appears to be $11 million over two years, the individual said.\n\nTaylor was with the Houston Texans last season, and did cross paths with Giants general manager Joe Schoen with the Buffalo Bills for one season, albeit one year prior to when Brian Daboll arrived as offensive coordinator.\n\nThe Giants have made the commitment to Taylor as a solid veteran quarterback behind Jones. What Taylor turns out to be with Big Blue is really up to Jones and how he performs.\n\nThe 32-year-old Taylor can be a well-compensated insurance policy at a position Schoen identified as a priority, or he can wind up as an ideal bridge to the next franchise quarterback if Jones struggles to develop.\n\n-- Art Stapleton, North Jersey\n\nBuccaneers swing trade for interior line help\n\nThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing on one of Tom Brady's former offensive linemen to help protect the quarterback.\n\nThe Buccaneers agreed to a trade with the New England Patriots to acquire offensive guard Shaq Mason, according to multiple reports, in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.\n\nMason, 28, has been a fixture of the Patriots' offensive line since he entered the NFL in 2015. In Tampa Bay, he will step in as a needed starter after the Buccaneers lost Alex Cappa to the Cincinnati Bengals. Earlier in the offseason, Pro Bowl offensive guard Ali Marpet opted to retire. Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen, however, opted to return on a three-year contract.\n\nNew England, meanwhile, is undergoing its own offensive line reshuffling after losing offensive guard Ted Karras to the Bengals. Offensive tackle Trent Brown is set to become a free agent.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nJets bolster secondary with D.J. Reed, Jordan Whitehead\n\nAfter focusing on offense to start free agency, the Jets' first move of Day 2 addressed one of their many glaring needs on defense, agreeing to sign former Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed, a person with knowledge of the situation told the USA TODAY Network. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal could not become official until Wednesday.\n\nThe Athletic first reported the agreement. The contract is for three years and $33 million, according to multiple reports.\n\nThere's certainly a lot to like about Reed. He's 25 and started 14 games last season for the Seahawks, who run a similar defense. He also played two seasons with coach Robert Saleh in San Francisco, which should make his transition to the Jets even smoother.\n\nReed is only 5-foot-9, but he played nearly all his snaps last season at outside corner: another plus because that's where the Jets need help. But Reed is more of a No. 2 corner than the lockdown guy the Jets have been missing for so long. And considering last season was the first time he started more than eight games in a year, he still has something to prove.\n\nYes, the defense is going to look much different next year. And that's a good thing because the Jets were the worst in the league. Whitehead should help change that. He turns 25 later this week and has started 55 of 59 games in four years with the Bucs. He has meaningful experience, starting every game in the Bucs 2020 run to the Super Bowl and forcing two fumbles in the NFC Championship game.\n\n- Andy Vasquez, North Jersey\n\nTom Brady gets a new receiver\n\nThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new slot receiver.\n\nRussell Gage is expected to sign with the team, according to multiple reports.\n\nGage, 26, recorded 66 catches for 770 yards and four touchdowns last year for the Atlanta Falcons. He had 39 catches for 500 yards in his final six games.\n\nIn Tampa, Gage will serve as a tertiary option behind star wide receivers Chris Godwin, who is currently on the franchise tag, and Mike Evans.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nRandy Gregory pulls NFL free agency about-face, will sign with Broncos rather than Cowboys\n\nThe Cowboys tweeted and deleted.\n\nThey posted to their website and soon after removed the link.\n\nBecause defensive end Randy Gregory, a person with knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports, pivoted.\n\nAfter reaching a deal with the Cowboys that was believed to be the final say on his future, Gregory instead now plans to sign with the Denver Broncos.\n\nThe Broncos offered Gregory a five-year, $70 million contract with $28 million in guarantees, a person with knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was not signed.\n\nAgreements cannot become official until the start of the new league year at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.\n\n- Jori Epstein\n\nRavens make big splash with standout safety\n\nThe Baltimore Ravens made a sizable investment to upgrade their secondary.\n\nSafety Marcus Williams agreed to a five-year deal worth $70 million with the team on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.\n\nWilliams, 25, started all five seasons for the New Orleans Saints since he entered the NFL in 2017. He quickly established himself as one of the NFL's best at his position, patrolling the back end for New Orleans while also making plays against the run.\n\nHe should slide in next to starter Chuck Clark to provide an instant boost to Baltimore's defense.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nRams left tackle Andrew Whitworth retires\n\nLos Angeles Rams left tackle and reigning Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Andrew Whitworth announced his retirement Tuesday at 40.\n\nWhitworth had said after the Rams' Super Bowl victory he would take time to mull his future.\n\nA two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection, Whitworth was a vital part of the Rams' success in recent years, setting the tone for a stable offensive line.\n\nThe Rams secured his successor Monday by agreeing to a three-year, $40 million contract with Joseph Noteboom.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nDolphins add a lineman for Tua\n\nThe Miami Dolphins are adding left guard Connor Williams from the Dallas Cowboys.\n\nWilliams should be a key component as Miami attempts to augment a woeful and underperforming offensive line unit.\n\nWilliams, 24, has already started 51 NFL games since he was selected in the second round out of the University of Texas.\n\nHe will join the Dolphins on a 2-year deal.\n\n- Joe Schad, Palm Beach Post\n\nSteelers get reinforcements up front\n\nAfter locking in Mitchell Trubisky to compete with Mason Rudolph for their starting quarterback job, the Pittsburgh Steelers are getting some much-neede help elsewhere on offense.\n\nOffensive guard James Daniels agreed to a three-year, $26.5 million contract with the Steelers, according to multiple reports.\n\nDaniels, 24, would patch a major hole on the interior of the Steelers' line. Pittsburgh ranked 29th in the NFL with just 3.9 yards per carry last season.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nTitans releasing Jackrabbit Jenkins\n\nThe Tennessee Titans are parting ways with one of their starting cornerbacks.\n\nThe Titans are releasing veteran Jackrabbit Jenkins, a person with direct knowledge of the move confirmed to the USA TODAY Network. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity, as the team has yet to announced the move.\n\nJenkin's release was anticipated, as the 33-year-old cornerback had a high cap number ($10.1 million) and the Titans were already financially strapped. Before cutting Jenkins, Tennessee was unofficially $1.8 million over the 2022 salary cap, per Over The Cap. They must be in compliance by 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, the start of the new league year.\n\nJenkins' release could also pave the way for 2021 first-round pick Caleb Farley to be a starter next season alongside Kristian Fulton. A former Virginia Tech star, Farley played just three games last season after battling a shoulder issue and a knee injury, which landed him on injured reserve. The Titans are also expected to add more depth at cornerback.\n\n- Ben Arthur, The Tennessean\n\nJaguars releasing starting LB Myles Jack\n\nAfter adding a horde of new players on Monday, the Jacksonville Jaguars are bidding farewell to one on Tuesday.\n\nJack, 26, led the Jaguars with 108 tackles last season. He was set to count $13.15 million against the cap this season, the penultimate year of his contract, and his release saves the team $8.35 million.\n\nThe move further remakes the Jaguars' linebacker corps after the team agreed to a deal with Foye Oluokun on Monday.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nPatriots, Browns swap defensive players in trade\n\nThe Cleveland Browns agreed Tuesday to trade linebacker Mack Wilson to the New England Patriots for edge defender Chase Winovich, a person familiar with the deal confirmed to the USA TODAY Network. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the move was not yet official.\n\nNFL Network first reported the deal involving Wilson, a fifth-round selection in 2019, and Winovich, a third-round choice in the same draft.\n\nThe trade cannot be finalized until 4 p.m. Wednesday, when free agency officially kicks off with the new league year.\n\nIn three NFL seasons, Winovich has started nine of his 45 regular-season games and compiled 85 tackles, including 11 sacks, 23 quarterback hits, an interception, two passes defensed and a forced fumble.\n\nWilson started 28 of the 43 games in which he appeared with the Browns and compiled 163 tackles, including a sack, nine passes defensed, a forced fumble, an interception and two quarterback hits.\n\n- Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal\n\nLions add low-cost investment at wide receiver\n\nIn an exploding wide receiver market, the Detroit Lions took a measured approach to their free agent shopping at the position.\n\nThe Lions agreed to a one-year contract Tuesday with Jacksonville Jaguars receiver DJ Chark, a league source told the Free Press. The deal includes $10 million guaranteed and could be worth up to $12 million, according to ESPN.\n\nChark was considered in the second tier of available receivers, behind Detroit native Allen Robinson, but inflation rocked the market in recent days.\n\nThe Los Angeles Chargers signed Mike Williams to a three-year, $60 million contract before the start of free agency. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the franchise tag on Chris Godwin at the cost of about $19 million. The Cleveland Browns traded for Amari Cooper and his $20 million contract. And Christian Kirk agreed to a four-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Day 1 of free agency Monday that has a maximum value of $84 million.\n\nThe Lions entered free agency determined to add an outside receiver to their offense that struggled to push the ball downfield at times last season.\n\nChark, 6 feet 4, ran a 4.34-second 40-yard dash coming out of college and has the speed to threaten defenses vertically.\n\nHe missed most of last season with a broken ankle, catching only seven passes for 154 yards in four games, but had career-highs of 73 catches 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019.\n\n- Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press\n\nDeshaun Watson to meet with Browns\n\nHaving met with officials from both the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints on Monday, Deshaun Watson will meet with the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal personnel meetings.\n\nWatson remains under contract with the Houston Texans. He has a no-trade clause in his contract and would have to waive that right, so the Texans cannot just trade him to whichever team they desire.\n\nThe Texans would prefer to trade Watson to an NFC team, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment publicly. However, Watson could force their hand.\n\n- Mike Jones\n\nChiefs find likely replacement for Tyrann Mathieu\n\nLooking to attempt to replace All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu, the Kansas City Chiefs will sign Justin Reid, who was a teammate of Mathieu's on the Houston Texans in 2018.\n\nReid is expected to sign a three-year, $31.5 million deal with the Chiefs, according to multiple reports.\n\nMathieu - who turns 30 in May - will be an unrestricted free agent on March 16. In Reid, the Chiefs sign a younger (he just turned 25) replacement for the defensive secondary.\n\nIn four seasons with the Texans, Reid collected seven interceptions - including a pick-six.\n\n- Jim Reineking", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/patriots/2022/02/02/new-england-patriots-coach-bill-belichick-thanks-tom-brady-retirement/6644599001/", "title": "Patriots coach Bill Belichick thanks Tom Brady upon QB's retirement ...", "text": "Tom Brady officially announced his retirement from the NFL on Tuesday after 22 record-breaking seasons. On Wednesday, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick — Brady's boss for 20 of those seasons — issued a statement thanking Brady \"for his relentless pursuit of excellence\" and said Brady will go down as \"the best player in NFL history.\"\n\n\"I am privileged to have drafted and coached Tom Brady, the ultimate competitor and winner,\" Belichick wrote in a statement released by the team. \"Tom's humble beginning in professional football ultimately ended with him becoming the best player in NFL history.\n\n\"Tom consistently performed at the highest level against competition that always made him the number one player to stop. His pursuit of excellence was inspirational.\"\n\nBrady was selected by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft, No. 199 overall. He took over as New England's starter early in the 2001 season following an injury to Drew Bledsoe.\n\nHe never gave the job up, leading the Patriots to an improbable victory in Super Bowl 36. That marked the first of six championships Brady and Belichick won together.\n\nThe most successful coach-QB duo in NFL history finally broke up following the 2019 season as Brady signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He guided the Bucs to victory in Super Bowl 55, securing his seventh championship.\n\nWinners, losers of Tom Brady retiring:Buccaneers QB's plan sends shockwaves through NFL\n\nOur favorite Tom Brady moments: From the 'Tuck Rule' to the Lombardi Trophy toss\n\nBrady did not mention Belichick, the Patriots or New England owner Robert Kraft in his retirement message posted Tuesday.\n\nThat fact, naturally, caused speculation about lingering bad blood between Brady and the organization. But an omission from a statement does not alter 20 years of history. What Brady and Belichick accomplished together will likely never be replicated, something Belichick, one of the game's great historians, surely knows.\n\n\"Tom was professional on and off the field, and carried himself with class, integrity, and kindness,\" Belichick wrote. \"I thank Tom for his relentless pursuit of excellence and positive impact on me and the New England Patriots for 20 years.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/03/16/49ers-chris-borland-retiring-at-24-wary-of-head-trauma/24884117/", "title": "49ers' Chris Borland retiring at 24, wary of head trauma", "text": "AP\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wary of head trauma, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland is leaving football. And not even the promise of NFL stardom and piles of money could change his mind.\n\nSo now, after one stellar rookie season, he is retiring at age 24.\n\nThe 49ers announced his decision Monday night, without offering specifics. But Borland told ESPN's \"Outside the Lines\" earlier in the day he wants to do \"what's best for my health.\"\n\nBorland had a team-leading 108 tackles as a rookie, emerging as a punishing defender. He also had a sack and two interceptions.\n\n\"From what I've researched and what I've experienced, I don't think it's worth the risk,\" Borland said in the interview. \"I feel largely the same, as sharp as I've ever been. For me, it's wanting to be proactive. I'm concerned that if you wait till you have symptoms, it's too late.\"\n\n49ers general manager Trent Baalke said the team was surprised by his move and called Borland a \"consummate professional.\"\n\nBorland's big announcement comes less than a week after five-time All Pro linebacker Patrick Willis walked away from football. Borland replaced Willis in the starting lineup after his October toe injury required surgery.\n\nThe NFL, like the 49ers, said it respects Borland's decision, adding that \"playing any sport is a personal decision.\" The league stressed that \"football has never been safer,\" noting progress with rule changes, tackling techniques, equipment, protocols and medical care.\n\n\"Concussions in NFL games were down 25 percent last year, continuing a three-year downward trend,\" Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president of health and safety, said in a statement Tuesday.\n\n\"We continue to make significant investments in independent research to advance the science and understanding of these issues. We are seeing a growing culture of safety. Everyone involved in the game knows that there is more work to do and player safety will continue to be our top priority.\"\n\nThe retirements of Willis and Borland are big blows to a team that also lost coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio after the season, then watched Frank Gore, Mike Iupati, Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox depart in free agency this past week. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was promoted to head coach following an 8-8 season, the club's first time out of the playoffs in four years.\n\n\"While unexpected, we certainly respect Chris' decision,\" Baalke said. \"From speaking with Chris, it was evident that he had put a great deal of thought into this decision. He was a consummate professional from Day One and a very well-respected member of our team and community.\n\n\"Chris is a determined young man that overcame long odds in his journey to the NFL and we are confident he will use the same approach to become very successful in his future endeavors. We will always consider him a 49er and wish him all the best.\"\n\nThe NFC Defensive Rookie of the Month for November, Borland injured an ankle on the final play of the first half against the Seahawks on Dec. 14 and didn't play again last season.\n\nThe 49ers selected Borland in the third round of the draft out of Wisconsin, where he was an imposing pass rusher.\n\n___\n\nAP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/us/tom-brady-retirement-statement-nfl-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Read Tom Brady's retirement announcement - CNN", "text": "The 44-year-old, arguably the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, announced the news on Instagram . Below is a full transcript of his statement:\n\nI have always believed the sport of football is an \"all-in\" proposition - if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game. There is a physical, mental, and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.\n\nThis is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.\n\nI've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 10% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\n\nTo my Bucs teammates the past two years, I love you guys, and I have loved going to battle with you. You have dug so deep to challenge yourself, and it inspired me to wake up every day and give you my best. I am always here for you guys and want to see you continue to push yourselves to be your best. I couldn't be happier with what we accomplished together.\n\nTo all the Bucs fans, thank you. I didn't know what to expect when I arrived here, but your support and embrace have enriched my life and that of my family. I have been honored to play for such a passionate and fun fan base. What a Krewe!!!\n\nTo the city of Tampa and the entire Tampa-St. Petersburg region, thank you. It has been wonderful to be a resident of such a fun place to live. I want to be invited to our next boat parade!\n\nTo the Glazer family, thank you for taking a chance on me and supporting me. I know I was demanding at times, but you provided everything we needed to win, and your ownership was everything a player could ask for.\n\nTo Jason Licht, thank you for your daily support and friendship - I will never forget it. I had never been through free agency, and I had some trepidation about how we could achieve success. Your leadership gave me confidence, and I will always be grateful.\n\nTo my head coach Bruce Arians, thank you for putting up with me! Your firm leadership and guidance were ideal. There is no way we could have had success without your experience, intuition, and wisdom. I am very grateful.\n\nTo all the Bucs coaches, my sincere thanks for all the hard work, dedication, and discipline that goes into creating a winning team. I have learned so much from all of you and will value the relationships we have.\n\nTo every single Bucs staffer and employee, thank you. Each of you is critically important, and I was greeted with a smile every day. That means so much to me. Your work is made up of long hours and hard tasks, but please know I see each and every one of you. Thank you so much.\n\nTo Alex Guerrero, thank you. I could never have made every Sunday without you; it's that simple. Your dedication to your craft and our friendship and brotherhood are immeasurable. We have an unbreakable bond, and I love you.\n\nTo Don Yee and Steve Dubin, thank you. You have been with me every step of the way since I left the University of Michigan and before I entered the league. What a journey it's been, and I couldn't do it without you.\n\nTo my parents and entire family (and extended family of countless friends), I love you and thank you for your never-ending support and love. I could never have imagined the time and energy you have given for me the past 30 years in football. I can never repay you. And just know I love you so much.\n\nAnd lastly to my wife, Gisele, and my children Jack, Benny and Vivi. You are my inspiration. Our family is my greatest achievement. I always came off the field and home to the most loving and supportive wife who has done EVERYTHING for our family to allow me to focus on my career. Her selflessness allowed me to reach new heights professionally, and I am beyond words what you mean to me and our family. Te amo amor da minha vida (heart emoji)\n\nMy playing career has been such a thrilling ride, and far beyond my imagination, and full of ups and downs. When you're in it every day, you really don't think about any kind of ending. As I sit here now, however, I think of all the great players and coaches I was privileged to play with and against - the competition was fierce and deep, JUST HOW WE LIKE IT. But the friendships and relationships are just as fierce and deep. I will remember and cherish these memories and re-visit them often. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.\n\nThe future is exciting. I'm fortunate to have cofounded incredible companies like @autograph.io @bradybrand @tb12sports that I am excited to continue to help build and grow, but exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\n\nWith much love, appreciation, and gratitude,\n\nTom", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cardinals/2018/01/02/cardinals-qb-carson-palmer-retires-after-15-seasons/997879001/", "title": "Carson Palmer retires after 15 seasons in NFL", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nCarson Palmer is calling it a career.\n\nThe Arizona Cardinals quarterback announced his retirement on Tuesday after 15 seasons in the NFL.\n\n\"For 15 years I have been lucky enough to play quarterback in the NFL and it has been the most incredible experience of my life,\" Palmer wrote in a statement. \"There wasn't one second that I took it for granted or failed to appreciate what a tremendous privilege it is.\"\n\nMore:NFL coaching tracker: Latest news on candidates, job openings\n\nMore:Pete Carroll: Seahawks' Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril will have 'a hard time' playing again\n\nThe No. 1 pick out of USC in 2003, he spent seven years with the Cincinnati Bengals and two with Oakland Raiders before joining the Cardinals in 2013. He was selected to three Pro Bowls and led Arizona to the NFC Championship Game in the 2015 season.\n\nPalmer played in just seven games in 2017 due to a broken arm.\n\nHis departure leaves Arizona with a significant hole at quarterback. Both Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert are set to become free agents, and neither thrived as starter when filling in for Palmer.\n\nOn Monday, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians also announced his retirement.\n\nPHOTOS: NFL postseason power rankings", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_8", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/asia/afghanistan-khost-earthquake-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: More than 1,000 people killed after ...", "text": "(CNN) Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.\n\nThe shocks hit at 1:24 a.m. local time on Wednesday (4:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday) around 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, which lies close to the country's border with Pakistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).\n\nPeople sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nPeople sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nA girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.\n\nA girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.\n\nPeople queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nPeople queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nAn old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nTaliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nTaliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nA villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nA villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nPeople help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nPeople help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nChildren sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nChildren sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nA Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.\n\nA man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAfghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.\n\nThe quake registered at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to USGS, which designated it at yellow alert level -- indicating a relatively localized impact.\n\nMost of the deaths were in Paktika province, in the districts of Giyan, Nika, Barmal and Zirok, according to the State Ministry for Disaster Management.\n\nThe death toll stands at more than 1,000 and at least 1,500 people have been injured \"in Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika province alone,\" Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, head of Paktika province's information and culture department, told CNN in a phone call Wednesday.\n\nThe official expects the number of casualties to rise as search and effort missions continue.\n\nIn this photo released by state-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans evacuate the wounded following the quake in Paktika province, eastern Afghanistan.\n\nIn neighboring Khost province, 25 people were killed and several others were injured, and five people were killed in Nangarhar province, the disaster management authority said.\n\nPhotos from Paktika province, just south of Khost province, show houses turned to rubble with only a wall or two still standing amid the rubble, and broken roof beams.\n\nNajibullah Sadid, an Afghan water resources management expert, said the earthquake had coincided with heavy monsoon rain in the region -- making traditional houses, many made of mud and other natural materials, particularly vulnerable to damage.\n\n\"The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties,\" he added.\n\nA team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday.\n\nThis comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report in May. It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cutting off international funding.\n\nThe situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, its economy has gone into freefall with the World Bank forecasting in April that a \"combination of declining incomes and increasing prices has driven a severe deterioration in household living standards.\"\n\nMany of the areas' traditional houses are made of mud and other natural materials, making them vulnerable to damage.\n\nThe earthquake hit at 1.24 a.m. about 46 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost.\n\nThe Taliban held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to organize providing transportation to the injured and material aid to the victims and their families, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said.\n\nPrime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called the meeting at the country's Presidential Palace to instruct all relevant agencies to send emergency relief teams to the affected area, Mujahid said in a tweet.\n\n\"Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment,\" Mujahid said and added that agencies were \"instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded.\"\n\nAfghanistan's Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management, Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim, said Wednesday that \"the Islamic Emirate will pay 100,000 AFN ($1,116.19) for the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and 50,000 ($558.10) will be paid to families of those injured.\"\n\nThe government also highlighted the need for foreign aid.\n\n\"Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid,\" a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its teams were on the ground for emergency response, including providing medicine, trauma services and conducting needs assessments.\n\nBut a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. \"All of the resources have been mobilized, not just from the nearby provinces but also from Kabul including medical supplies, medics, nurses, health workers, ambulances and emergency officers who are trained in dealing with such situations,\" said Alaa AbouZeid, emergencies team lead and incident manager at WHO's Afghanistan office.\n\n\"The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs,\" he said. \"The resources are overstretched here, not just for this region, but we are expecting the situation to evolve in the coming hours.\"\n\nAccording to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is \"hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon.\"\n\n\"Immediate needs identified include emergency trauma care, emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance and WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] support,\" said the UNOCHA in a statement published Wednesday.\n\nAfghan Red Crescent Society volunteers help people affected by the eartquake in Giyan district.\n\nPakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. \"Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives,\" he wrote. \"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need.\"\n\nIndia expressed \"sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families,\" according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday.\n\nPope Francis said he was praying \"for those who have lost their lives and for their families,\" during his weekly audience on Wednesday. \"I hope aid can be sent there to help all the suffering of the dear people of Afghanistan.\"\n\nAfghanistan has a long history of earthquakes, many of which happen in the mountainous Hindu Kush region that borders with Pakistan.\n\nIn 2015, a quake that shook parts of South Asia killed more than 300 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.", "authors": ["Masoud Popalzai", "Jessie Yeung", "Ehsan Popalzai", "Tara John"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/asia/afghanistan-earthquake-aid-rescue-search-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: Crisis-hit country struggles for aid following ...", "text": "(CNN) Desperate search and rescue operations were underway in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday following an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people, a heavy blow for a country already facing a dire economic and humanitarian crisis.\n\nThe magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border. At least 1,500 people have been reported injured -- but officials warn the toll is likely to rise as many families were sleeping in flimsy housing structures when the quake hit.\n\nChildren near their destroyed home in the Spera district of Afghanistan's Khost province on June 22.\n\nMany homes in the area are made of mud, wood and other materials vulnerable to weather damage -- and the quake coincided with heavy monsoon rains, adding to the danger of collapse.\n\nPhotos from nearby Paktika province, a rural and mountainous region where most of the deaths have been reported, show houses reduced to rubble. About 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. Some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight.\n\nAfghan villagers sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in an earthquake in Spera, Khost province, on June 22.\n\nMedics and emergency staff from around the country are converging on the site, with assistance from some international agencies such as the World Health Organization.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Jessie Yeung"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/asia/afghanistan-earthquake-rescue-aid-efforts-intl/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: 'What do we do when another disaster hits ...", "text": "(CNN) Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.\n\nThe slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. \"This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term... what do we do when (another disaster) hits?\" he told CNN by phone.\n\nThe magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.\n\nHumanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.\n\nThe United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.\n\nSpokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the \"priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support.\"\n\nHe added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.\n\n\"At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units,\" a WFP statement released Thursday said.\n\nUNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute \"hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin\" to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nThe quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.\n\nAs medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.\n\nThose that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized \"all of the resources\" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, \"the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region.\"\n\n'Very bleak'\n\nThe international community's hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group's \"very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source\" has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer -- who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger -- said.\n\n\"At the core of everything is how the politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well,\" he added.\n\nBaheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.\n\nIn the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.\n\nHsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as \"very bleak,\" where some the villages in heavily affected districts \"are completely decimated or 70% are collapsed,\" she said.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake.\n\n\"There will be months and potentially years of building back,\" she said. \"The needs are so much more massive than just food... It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful.\"\n\nOfficials say aid is reaching the affected areas.\n\nThe government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense's official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.\n\n'Carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people'\n\nAlthough the economic crisis in Afghanistan has loomed for years, the result of conflict and drought, it plunged to new depths after the Taliban takeover, which prompted the United States and its allies to freeze about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cut off international funding.\n\nThe US no longer has a presence in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal of its troops and collapse of the previous US-backed Afghan government. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government.\n\nSanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are out of work, government employees haven't been paid, and the price of food has soared.\n\nHumanitarian aid is excluded from sanctions, but there are impediments, according to draft remarks by Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of a UN Security Council in the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThis includes a major need in funding, Taliban authorities \"seeking to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists,\" and the \"formal banking system continues to block transfers,\" he writes.\n\nThis means \"around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA's monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. Over 60% of organizations cite lack of available cash in-country as a programmatic impediment.\"\n\nA child stands beside a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nBaheer says sanctions \"are hurting us so much\" that Afghans are struggling to send money to families affected by the earthquake.\n\n\"The fact that we barely have a banking system, the fact that we haven't had new currency printed or brought into the country in the past nine to 10 months, our assets are frozen... these sanctions don't work,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"The only sanctions that make moral sense is targeted sanctions on specific individuals rather than carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people.\"\n\nWhile \"sanctions have affected a lot of the country, there's an exemption for humanitarian aid so we're getting it in to support those most in need,\" Mort, from UNICEF, told CNN.\n\nThe Taliban \"isn't preventing us from distributing anything like that, on the contrary they are enabling us,\" she added.\n\nExperts and officials say the most pressing immediate needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for the displaced, food and water, and clothing.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake.\n\nThe UN has distributed medical supplies and sent mobile health teams to Afghanistan -- but warned that it does not have search and rescue capabilities.\n\nBaheer told CNN on Wednesday that the Taliban were only able to send out six rescue helicopters \"because when the United States was leaving it disabled most of the aircraft whether it belonged to Afghanistan forces or to them.\"\n\nPakistan has offered to help, opening border crossings in its northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and allowing injured Afghans to come into the country visa-free for treatment, according Mohammad Ali Saif, a regional government spokesperson.\n\n\"400 injured Afghans have moved into Pakistan this morning for treatment and a stream of people is continuing, these numbers are expected to rise by the end of day, Saif told CNN.\n\nPakistan has kept a tight limit on Afghans entering the country via the land border crossing since the Taliban took power.", "authors": ["Tara John", "Akanksha Sharma", "Jo Shelley", "Ehsan Popalzai"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/asia/japan-earthquake-fukushima-intl/index.html", "title": "Japan earthquake: 4 dead after 7.4-magnitude quake hits coast off ...", "text": "Tokyo (CNN) A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan late Wednesday night, killing at least four people and injuring over 100 others, and cutting power to millions of homes.\n\nOne of the people who died was a man in his 60s who lived in the city of Soma, the local disaster prevention office said on Thursday.\n\nThe quake hit off the coast of Japan's eastern Fukushima prefecture, a region devastated by a powerful quake and tsunami 11 years ago that resulted in a nuclear power plant meltdown.\n\nThe quake was originally designated 7.3-magnitude, but was upgraded to 7.4 on Thursday.\n\nA tsunami advisory was issued after Wednesday's quake for the coastal prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, but was lifted on Thursday morning and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said \"no abnormalities\" had been detected at any of the country's nuclear plants.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Emiko Jozuka", "Mayumi Maruyama", "Karen Smith", "Brandon Miller"], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/26/earthquake-strikes-pakistan/74611896/", "title": "Quake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan; at least 311 dead", "text": "Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan — At least 311 people were killed when a magnitude-7.5 earthquake centered in Afghanistan rocked neighboring Pakistan and rattled buildings as far away as India.\n\nThe U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was in the far northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.\n\nThe death toll reached at least 311 early Tuesday. In Pakistan, 228 people were killed, with more than 1,000 injured, while Afghanistan reported 33 dead and more than 200 injured, according to the Associated Press. The Afghan death toll included 12 school girls who died in a stampede fleeing their swaying school in Takhar Province. The Indian-controlled Kashmir region reported two deaths.\n\nAuthorities warned the number of deaths could climb as damage in remote villages is discovered.\n\n\"The devastation is going to be huge,” said Fazl Din, a doctor in Peshawar, about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. “It is very difficult to reach the far-flung villages. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have no proper disaster management units.”\n\nAfter quake, fears remain of more destruction if ground shakes again\n\nPakistan’s Information Minister Pervez Rashid said civil and military authorities were working to reach all those affected by the quake. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered assistance to Pakistan, although Rashid said his country of more than 180 million people doesn't plan to to seek help from other nations, the AP reported.\n\n“We have enough resources to handle the situation,\" Rashid said.\n\nThe quake caused widespread power outages and cut phone lines in Kabul, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.\n\nThe world's deadliest earthquakes in past decade\n\nIn Afghanistan’s Baghlan’s province north of the capital of Kabul, construction worker Mir Omarkhil, 32, said his 11-year-old son lost a leg to the quake.\n\n“He was playing outside when the earth shook,\" Omarkhil said. \"He got himself under a building for protection. That cost him his left leg.”\n\nRashid Khan Haider, 54, a folk singer from Parwan near Kabul, said he fled his home moments before it collapsed. When the quake began, he thought a terrorist attack was underway, he said.\n\n“Within few moments I got the idea that it is something else,\" he said. \"Thanks to Allah that we are safe, but our house was ruined like a house of cards.”\n\nIn Pakistan, buildings collapsed in Peshawar, and the quake was felt hundreds of miles away.\n\nIn Mingora, Pakistan, 50 miles from the Afghanistan border, schoolteacher Salma Khan said she was helping her pupils wrap up for the day when the ground shifted beneath her.\n\n\"Our first reaction was that maybe it is a terrorist attack,” Khan said. “We rushed to move the children out of the vicinity when we found out it was an earthquake.\"\n\n​\"I was in my apartment on the third floor ... and I literally felt death,\" Faisal Farooq, 28, who lives in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, told Dawn. \"The building was moving like a swing. My legs are still shivering.\"\n\nIn north central Pakistan, a wall of the Government Ambala Muslim High School Sargodha collapsed in the quake, injuring 10 people.\n\n\"Most of the government school buildings are in bad shape, and this one in particular was in ruins. It was a miracle that saved the entire building from falling,\" said Tahir Malik, a college student based in Sargodha.\n\nPeople in the Afghan capital of Kabul, India's capital New Delhi and Pakistan's capital Islamabad reported feeling strong tremors. In Islamabad, walls swayed and people poured out of office buildings in a panic, reciting verses from the Quran, the AP said.\n\nNew Delhi's metro stopped running during the tremor. Avinash Mishra, 28, a law student at Dehli University, was riding the subway from the city into the suburbs on Monday when the earthquake struck.\n\n“Suddenly the train stopped,” Mishra said. “We could feel tremors inside the train. We were there for about 15 minutes until the train moved again.”\n\nIn October 2005. a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in the Kashmir region rocked parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, killing more than 80,000 people.\n\nMohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing; Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/10/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/world/gallery/deadly-afghanistan-earthquake/index.html", "title": "In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan", "text": "Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people. In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan\n\nSayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.\n\nAfghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957149/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-23-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 23 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "PM to meet Charles in Rwanda\n\nBoris Johnson will tell the Prince of Wales he is “proud” of his Rwanda migrants policy during a meeting tomorrow, The Telegraph said. It will be the first meeting between the two men since it emerged that Prince Charles privately described the planned deportation of asylum seekers to the country as “appalling”. Clarence House described the meeting, which will take place in Rwanda, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as Johnson “popping in for a cup of tea” with the Prince. Johnson said that he is “very much looking forward” to it.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/22/gas-tax-holiday-proposal-southwest-airlines-pilots-protest-afghanistan-earthquake-its-wednesdays-new/7700606001/", "title": "Gas tax holiday plan, Roe v. Wade, Southwest Airlines pilots protest ...", "text": "President Joe Biden proposed a tax holiday on fuel, but not everybody in Congress is ready to hit the gas. An earthquake rocked Afghanistan, leaving 1,000 dead and scores more injured. And we're looking at the maze of state abortion laws that would be triggered should Roe v. Wade be overturned.\n\n👋 It's Laura Davis. It's Wednesday. I'm standing on one leg. Here's everything you need to know.\n\nBut first, how long can you stand on one leg? 🤷‍♀️ You're twice as likely to die in the next decade if you're currently unable to balance on one foot for 10 seconds, according to a new study. Read more, if you dare.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nCongress not quite ready to green-light Biden's gas tax holiday\n\nAs gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states, President Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to temporarily halt the federal tax on gas and asked states, which have their own taxes, to take similar action. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats were skeptical and remained noncommittal, signaling Biden's proposal could be doomed out of the gate. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some \"breathing room\" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. Read more about Biden's plan.\n\n⛽️ News you can use: What are gas taxes and what do they pay for?\n\nIf Roe v. Wade is overturned, a maze of state abortion laws await\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court is poised to force women seeking abortions to navigate a labyrinth of laws and restrictions ranging from near-outright bans in more than a dozen states to provisions in a few states not only guaranteeing access to abortion, but funding to pay for them. If a decision is made to eliminate federal abortion rights, within a year, as many as 75,000 women won’t make it to a provider, according to one estimate, and would be forced to give birth instead. That would just be the start of the fallout from a ruling with implications that stretch far beyond reproductive health care, to encompass suppression of female participation in the workforce and the amplification of racial and economic inequities. Keep reading.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nAt least 1,000 killed in Afghanistan earthquake\n\nAn earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people, injuring 1,500 more and destroying homes and other buildings in the rugged, mountainous region. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency the death toll from the magnitude 5.9 temblor was likely to rise. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed, he said. The quake struck at 1:24 a.m. local time, when many were sleeping, and was felt more than 300 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. \"People are digging grave after grave,\" said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika. Read more + see a map of the earthquake.\n\n📸 Gallery: Evacuations, destruction seen after Afghanistan earthquake.\n\nPilots picket as airline unions leverage summer travel woes\n\nHundreds of uniformed Southwest Airlines pilots stood in perfect lines in the scorching Texas sun at Dallas Love Field on Tuesday, holding signs that blamed Southwest management for delays and cancellations that have upset passengers. The protest, which the union said drew up to 1,300 pilots, was the latest example of airline workers trying to put pressure on companies by taking their demands for higher pay directly to the flying public. Keep reading to learn more about the pilots' plight.\n\nFlight delays, cancellations keep piling up. What's going on?\n\nkeep piling up. What's going on? Record number of people expected to take road trips for Fourth of July weekend.\n\nReal quick\n\nWill NFL owner Daniel Snyder be subpoenaed?\n\nIt's looking like it. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the alleged toxic workplace environment within the Washington Commanders organization. At the center of the investigation is team owner Daniel Snyder, who has been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., announced her intent to subpoena Snyder to appear before the committee for a deposition next week. Snyder, through his attorney, declined to testify, indicating that he was out of the country because of a \"longstanding Commanders-related business conflict.\" Here are the key moments from Wednesday's hearing.\n\nDetails emerge of sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner.\n\nof sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner. Members of Congress ask NFL for documents, information from Washington football probe.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/27/taliban-backs-relief-efforts-after-killer-quake/74675272/", "title": "Taliban backs relief efforts after deadly Pakistan quake", "text": "Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan — The Taliban on Tuesday urged its fighters to aid earthquake victims and said it would not block governmental relief efforts in the battered region of northern Afghanistan and Pakistan.\n\nThe communique was issued as workers scrambled to deliver emergency supplies to the isolated, mountainous area that was rocked by a magnitude-7.5 quake Monday. The death toll rose to more than 370 on Tuesday, but authorities warned it could continue to climb as rescuers reach remote villages where communication lines were cut off by the quake.\n\nThe Taliban has waged a series of bloody battles in recent months with troops supporting the Western-backed government in Kabul. As a result, earthquake relief efforts had been hamstrung by security concerns. The Taliban — or Islamic Emirate — indicated Tuesday it would not hinder emergency teams, Reuters reported.\n\n\"The Islamic Emirate calls on our good-willed countrymen and charitable organizations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims,\" the group said in a statement. \"And it similarly orders its mujahedin in the affected areas to lend their complete help.\"\n\nThe epicenter of the quake was on the Afghan side of the border, but Pakistan took the brunt of the destruction and deaths. Afghan and Pakistani officials listed the preliminary death toll at 258 people in Pakistan and 115 in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. More than 200 died in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.\n\nThousands of people were injured and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed. The result: Thousands left homeless ahead of a harsh winter common for the Hindu Kush mountain region that stretches from northern Pakistan deep into central Afghanistan.\n\nPakistan declined offers of relief assistance from the U.S., neighboring India and other nations.\n\n“We have enough resources to handle the situation,” Pakistan Information Minister Pervez Rashid said at a press conference Tuesday in Islamabad. “The government is utilizing all resources to save human lives and restore communication links.\"\n\nPakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the town hit the hardest by the earthquake, Shangla in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along the Afghan frontier, where he said at least 49 people were killed and 80 were injured.\n\nWhen the earthquake struck, Arshad Khan, a teacher in Buner, fled her house with her 14-year-old son, who suffered a fractured leg and his head required stitches. Khan said she saw a neighbor die under a collapsing house.\n\n“Pakhtunkhwa is in ruins literally — cut off from the road network,” said Khan, who was at Lady Reading Hospital in the provincial capital of Peshawar. “We are waiting to hear about our missing family and friends. We are losing hope.”\n\nMushta Aziz, a shopkeeper and father of two from Gilgit, a Pakistani city about 100 miles from the border with Tajikistan, said his family was forced to sleep outdoors in the cold amid rubble.\n\n“We are still trying to locate our close relatives,” he said. \"My sister and her family are still missing, and there is no way to reach them due to the landslides.\"\n\nQuake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan; at least 311 dead\n\nPeople who were not in the most-affected quake zones were leery, too. Many fear aftershocks that could cause another disaster.\n\n“No one is willing to go back into their houses,” said Faisal Sheikh, 26, an engineering student in Islamabad. “We are good when outside in the open. Let things get stabilized, then fear will vanish from people’s minds.”\n\nSharif said his government would soon announce details of a relief packages for victims. Authorities were working to clear landslides that had prevented aid from reaching remote areas. A cargo plane carrying 7 tons of rations — including 2,500 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents, medicine and other supplies — shuttled goods to isolated areas. Trucks were carrying another 20 tons of rations, including 10,000 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents and other supplies, authorities said.\n\n“It has caused a delay in response at a time when the utmost rescue operations are needed,” said Omar Shah, a Pakistani soldier who has been working on rescue efforts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.\n\nMohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/10/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/world/storm-eunice-landfall-weather-climate-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "Storm Eunice blows off rooftops with highest wind speeds on record ...", "text": "(CNN) Storm Eunice tore down rooftops and trees, crushed cars and sent planes skidding on London's runways as millions of people across the United Kingdom hunkered down at home to stay out of hurricane-strength winds.\n\nThe storm led to 10 fatalities across the UK and parts of western Europe, with wind speeds as high as 122 miles per hour (mph) -- the fastest on record in the country. High wind speeds is what make wind storms intense.\n\nThe UK Met Office expanded its rare \"danger-to-life\" weather alert ahead of the storm on Friday morning to include most of the south of England and some of Wales.\n\nA woman was killed in north London's Muswell Hill on Friday after a tree fell on her car, according to a statement from the London Fire Brigade, while a man in his 50s was also killed on Friday while driving his car in Liverpool, according to Merseyside Police.\n\nIn Hampshire, one man died and another was seriously injured in a car accident. Both men, in their 20s, were in their vehicle when a tree fell on top of it during the storm. Police are investigating the exact circumstances of the incident and have appealed for witnesses.\n\nIn Ireland, which is also experiencing strong winds from Eunice, a man in his late 60s was killed after being hit by a falling tree, the national police service, known as the Gardaí, confirmed to CNN.\n\nThe man, who has not been named, died in County Wexford, southeastern Ireland, and was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThe storm also wreaked havoc in mainland Europe, with German broadcaster ZDF reporting two deaths in Germany, with one person falling from his roof and the other crashing his car into a fallen tree.\n\nA 79-year-old English man also died in western Belgium after strong winds knocked him off his barge and into the water of a marina, state broadcaster RTBF reported.\n\nMeanwhile, the Amsterdam-Amstelland fire brigade reported three deaths due to fallen trees in the Netherlands on Friday, while most of the country was under the highest weather alert with people advised to stay home ahead of the storm.\n\nLarge sections of the O2 Arena rooftop were blown off on Friday.\n\nThe storm has damaged buildings in the UK, with footage shared to social media showing the roof of London's O2 arena severely damaged by strong wind.Op de #vrijheidslaan in Amsterdam is een boom op een fietser terecht gekomen. Deze fietser is hierdoor overleden.\n\nLarge sections of the fabric roof were shredded and ripped off by the gusts, while the building was evacuated and closed.\n\nOn its website, the 02 said an event at the venue Friday night would be rescheduled.\n\n\"The safety of our visitors remains of paramount importance, and we will continue to assess the ongoing situation and act accordingly,\" the statement said.\n\nElsewhere, a CNN reporter witnessed part of a rooftop flying off a home in the southwestern London area of Surbiton. The roof crushed a car parked on the street.\n\nSocial media video showed a building housing lifeboats with part of its rooftop blown off at Sennen beach in the country of Cornwall, where strong winds were pushing waves above a seawall. Police in Cornwall and neighboring Devon said they had received high volumes of calls about flying debris, collapsed roofs and fallen trees.\n\nOther video footage shared on Twitter showed a church spire in Somerset collapsing in high winds.\n\nResidents around the UK also posted images on social media of collapsed fences and trees in roads.\n\nA large tree fell after high winds battered an area of Battersea, London on Friday.\n\nMany homes were also left without power on Friday, including small pockets of London and larger areas of southern England.\n\nAs dozens of flights were canceled across London's major airports, more than 200,000 people tuned in to watch a live stream on YouTube of planes landing at London's Heathrow. The aircraft were seen battling strong gusts as they came into land, some of them wobbling mid-air, others skidding from side to side once they hit the runway.\n\nThe video, on the Big Jet TV channel, was accompanied by comical commentary by presenter Jerry Dyer, who kept viewers entertained by offering words of encouragement to the pilots, at one point saying: \"Come on mate, you can do it!\"\n\nBritish Airways said it was grounding a number of planes and expected \"significant disruption,\" but that most flights would go ahead as planned.\n\n\"Safety is our number one priority, and we're canceling a number of flights,\" British Airways said in a statement.\n\nThe airline said it was looking at deploying larger aircraft where possible to better withstand the weather.\n\nRail companies have urged customers to reconsider their plans, with blanket speed restrictions in place for most lines across the country.\n\nIn a statement Friday, Network Rail warned of high winds blowing trees and other debris onto railway lines, which then block trains and cause delays and cancelations.\n\nWaves crash against the sea wall and Porthcawl Lighthouse in Bridgend, Wales, as Storm Eunice hits the UK on Friday.\n\nA local butcher carries his shop sign across a snowy pavement in County Durham, Britain, as Storm Eunice makes landfall.\n\nAuthorities are expecting gusts to cause travel delays, power cuts and possible mobile phone coverage outages throughout Friday.\n\nA sting jet could hit\n\nMeteorologists have also raised the possibility of a sting jet, the weather phenomenon which made the 1987 Great Storm so destructive and deadly. Eighteen people were killed in that storm and 15 million trees were blown down in winds that topped 100 mph.\n\nA sting jet is a very narrow and concentrated blast of powerful, upper-level winds that can form inside powerful weather systems. It descends to the the Earth's surface and can last a few hours, potentially causing damage to life and property, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.\n\n\"The 'sting' refers to the cloud formation it creates, which resembles a scorpion's stinger,\" he said.\n\nA person walks past a sign at Waterloo station, warning of severe weather.\n\nMotorists drive through the sleet and snow along the M8 motorway near Bathgate in West Lothian as Storm Eunice sweeps across the UK after hitting the south coast earlier on Friday.\n\nEunice is the second storm in a week for the UK after Storm Dudley battered parts of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland Wednesday, leaving thousands of homes without power. Those homes have since been reconnected.\n\nHannah Cloke, professor of Hydrology at Britain's University of Reading, urged people to stay home where possible.\n\nShe said people should not to take the red alert \"lightly,\" as the winds were likely to uproot trees and roof tiles.\n\n\"If you're hit by one of those you will be seriously hurt or killed. Wind that strong will sweep people and vehicles off streets, and topple electricity lines,\" she said.\n\nA climate connection?\n\nThere is little to suggest any link between human-made climate change and the frequency and intensity -- or windspeeds -- of storms in northern Europe at current levels of global warming.\n\nBut damage from windstorms are still getting worse because the rainfall associated with them is becoming more intense, a trend that many scientific studies do link to climate change. Sea level rise also plays a role.\n\n\"With more intense rainfall and higher sea levels as human-caused climate change continues to heat the planet, flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worse still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world,\" Richard Allan, a climate scientists at the University of Reading, said in a statement.\n\nThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, compared with levels before industrialization, then northern Europe would start to see an increase in the frequency of severe windstorms.", "authors": ["Sara Spary", "Niamh Kennedy", "Rob Iddiols", "Derek Van Dam", "Amy Cassidy"], "publish_date": "2022/02/18"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_9", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/02/covid-vaccine-kids-children-approved/6233927001/", "title": "CDC recommends coronavirus vaccine for kids 5-11; shots set to ...", "text": "Children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off Tuesday night on an expert panel's recommendation.\n\nChildren in this age group could begin getting shots as soon as this week, as health providers can start vaccinating them \"as soon as possible,\" the CDC said in a release.\n\nLast week the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11, and the CDC's recommendation now clears the vaccine for those ages.\n\nPresident Joe Biden called the news \"a turning point in our battle against COVID-19,\" in a written statement Tuesday night.\n\nPresidential adviser Jeffrey Zients said Monday that the Biden administration ordered enough vaccine to cover all 28 million American children in the age group. The administration’s distribution program will be “running at full strength” the week of Nov. 8, he said.\n\nThough the vaccines carry some risk for children, their benefits are greater, concluded the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, made up of vaccine and immune system experts from universities and medical schools across the country.\n\n\"We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine,\" a Tuesday release quotes CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. \"As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated.\"\n\nVaccines will be available at 100 children's hospitals, temporary clinics in the community and at schools, as well as pharmacies and pediatricians' offices. Shots will be free, at one-third the dose of the adult vaccine and will be delivered in two shots at least three weeks apart.\n\nA number of professional groups added their support Tuesday for childhood vaccination, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.\n\nIn several small trials, Pfizer-BioNTech, which makes the vaccine, saw no serious side effects connected with the shots.\n\nIt is likely, committee members acknowledged, that some potentially dangerous side effects will become apparent once the shots are delivered to millions of children, just as rare side effects not seen in clinical trials of adults turned up with widespread vaccinations.\n\n\"We need to acknowledge the unknown,\" said Dr. Matthew Daley, a committee member and senior investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Aurora.\n\nDaley said he was more concerned about the risk of waiting to vaccinate kids. \"If we wait, we miss the chance to prevent many cases of COVID-19 in this age group, and that includes some very severe cases.\"\n\nData from the CDC suggests that vaccinations can prevent 600,000 infections in the age group by March, including a number of hospitalizations and a few deaths.\n\nFully vaccinating 1 million children in the age group would prevent about 57,000 cases of COVID-19 and about 200 hospitalizations, the CDC said.\n\n“The data that was presented really speaks volumes in terms of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Dr. Pablo Sánchez, a professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.\n\n“Children are dying, and we can reduce hospitalization and death with this safe and effective vaccine that will benefit the community,” said Dr. Oliver Brooks, chief medical officer for the Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles.\n\nParents who have concerns about the shots should speak with their pediatrician, CDC and committee members said.\n\nKid shots Q and A: Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children\n\nThe potential vaccine side effect of biggest concern is a swelling of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis, which has been seen particularly among young men who received vaccine.\n\nOut of every one million 16- and 17-year-old boys vaccinated, 69 have developed the condition, compared with two out of every million men in their 40s, government statistics show. None has died, and most cases appear to be mild without long-term consequences.\n\nMatthew Oster, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, said he expects the side effect will be even rarer in children.\n\nBefore COVID-19, myocarditis was most common among adolescents and young men probably because of their relatively high levels of the hormone testosterone, Oster told the committee. Children younger than 12 typically have low levels.\n\nInfection with COVID-19 can cause myocarditis that appears to be more serious than swelling seen with vaccination, he said.\n\nMany children who receive the shots will, like adults and teens, feel side effects in the first 48 hours or so. The most common side effects in the trials were fatigue, headaches, joint pain, pain at the injection site and vomiting, nausea or diarrhea.\n\nThe CDC monitors vaccine recipients, including children, for serious vaccine reactions through several different systems. One involves self-reporting of symptoms, another is reported mainly by doctors and two others collect data from hospitals, the CDC's Dr. Tom Shimabukuro told the committee.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration has a separate vaccine surveillance system, as does the Department of Defense, which first identified myocarditis as a risk among service members.\n\nRush is on: With vaccine orders placed, doctors, pharmacies prepare for a flood of young children\n\nLast week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized vaccines for use in this age group after a signoff by an independent group of vaccine experts who determined that the benefits outweighed the risks.\n\nOf the three vaccines available to adults in the USA, only Pfizer-BioNTech has completed studies in minors. Moderna said Sunday that the FDA asked for more information about its shots in adolescents, which probably will defer its authorization until January.\n\nJohnson & Johnson is further behind in its trials in adolescents and children.\n\nTypically, companies test vaccines in adults, then move down in age as the shots are proved safe. Pfizer-BioNTech continues to study even younger children, down to 6 months of age.\n\nThough fully approved for use in adults and older teens, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized only for emergency use in children and younger adolescents. The collaborating companies will probably request full authorization for these age groups next year, once they have longer-term data and more details on manufacturing.\n\nVaccines are somewhat more controversial in children than adolescents and adults, because children are less likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infections.\n\nStill, 94 American children ages 5-11 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began – the eighth leading cause of death in this age group – and about 8,300 have been hospitalized.\n\nAlthough at lower rates than adults, children ages 5 to 11 can suffer from lingering symptoms of COVID-19 infections, so-called long COVID – including months-long fatigue, pain, headaches, insomnia and trouble concentrating.\n\nAll children, regardless of age, can catch and pass on COVID-19, one study confirmed.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is clearly effective in children 5-11, preventing more than 90% of infections, according to a company-run study in about 2,500 children.\n\nQuestions remain about the effectiveness and safety of the shots because of the relatively small number of children who have received them so far – fewer than 3,500 across three company-run studies. It is not clear how long this protection against COVID-19 will last or whether booster shots will be needed.\n\nData from the CDC suggests that nine children would have needed to be vaccinated to protect one of them from contracting COVID-19 in September during the peak of the last wave, and about 26 today when rates are lower. About 2,200 kids would have needed protection six weeks ago to prevent one hospitalization and about 8,200 more recently.\n\nChildren who are immunocompromised or have health issues such as obesity and metabolic disease are at higher risk for serious COVID-19 infections. Two-thirds of children hospitalized for COVID-19 had preexisting health conditions, while one-third were previously healthy according to the CDC.\n\nThe CDC's recommendation for vaccination includes all children, regardless of their underlying medical conditions.\n\nChildhood vaccinations will help families in which parents are fighting cancer, said Dr. Gwen Nichols, chief medical officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Vaccination will allow \"children to interact with more freedom, including with their parents and grandparents,\" she said. \"This is particularly important for immunosuppressed patients, including those with blood cancers who have been in an impossible situation with their younger children returning to school in-person.”\n\nChildren of color have been hospitalized at three times the rate of white children, data shows.\n\nAbout 38% of American children have been infected with COVID-19, according to data presented to the committee.\n\nChildren who have already had COVID-19 will get some protection against severe disease but should still get vaccinated, according to the recommendation, because the shots provide more consistent protection than infection.\n\nAn FDA analysis of infections presented to a different advisory committee last week found that the benefits of vaccination generally outweigh risks among children. If COVID-19 cases are extremely low – less than 10% of the rates seen in mid-September – the benefits of vaccination are less clear, the report concluded.\n\nVaccines take about five weeks to come to full effectiveness, two weeks after the second shot, so parents will not have time to provide vaccine protection in the face of a sudden outbreak or a fast-spreading new variant.\n\nCOVID-19 has already caused substantially more misery than other childhood diseases, CDC data showed. COVID-19 led to at least three times more hospitalizations and deaths than hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, varicella, rubella and rotavirus did before vaccines were introduced against those diseases.\n\nDr. Katherine Poehling, a professor of pediatrics at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said that information helped convince her to strongly support COVID-19 vaccines for elementary school children.\n\n\"We can now make these COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths vaccine preventable,\" she said.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/health/covid-vaccines-under-5-begin/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccinations begin for US children under 5 - CNN", "text": "Vaccines for children under 5 a turning point for many US families\n\nCNN —\n\nDr. Sarah Schaffer DeRoo described in one word how she felt after getting her 7-month-old son vaccinated against Covid-19: thrilled.\n\nHer active baby boy sat in her lap at a vaccine clinic hosted by Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, while receiving his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine. The shot was administered in his thigh. He cried for a few seconds but then his attention turned toward a golden retriever that was on site as a comfort dog provided by the hospital.\n\n“I’m feeling really thrilled that we have this opportunity,” DeRoo, a pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux on Tuesday about her son’s vaccination.\n\nDeRoo added that her family now will feel more comfortable participating in certain activities, knowing that their youngest son has started his Covid-19 vaccine series.\n\n“It will certainly allow us to have more freedom with our personal lives and what we do,” DeRoo said. “And for the baby, we’ll feel like we have cloaked him in as much protection as we can.”\n\nCovid-19 vaccinations for children younger than 5 are beginning Tuesday across the United States, marking a milestone in the nation’s fight against the disease.\n\nLast week, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorizations for Moderna’s vaccine to include children 6 months through 17 years and Pfizer/BioNTech’s for children 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThen on Saturday, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on Covid-19 vaccinations for children under 5, clearing the way for vaccinations to be administered in that age group.\n\nAbout 17 million kids under the age of 5 are now eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.\n\n“This is a big day. We’ve been waiting a long time for children to have access to the vaccine. We now have every age group, 6 months and above, in the country which is now eligible to get protection from the Covid-19 vaccine. And I’ll tell you as a dad of a 4-year-old, this is a big deal for my family as well,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Tuesday morning.\n\nAs of the end of Tuesday, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has delivered approximately 2.7 million doses of vaccine for children under 5 nationwide.\n\n“Another 1 million doses have been shipped and will soon be received by administration sites,” Tim Granholm, an HHS spokesperson, wrote in an email to CNN on Wednesday morning.\n\n“HHS has received orders for approximately 4.2 million doses to date,” Granholm wrote. “We will continue to deliver vaccines expeditiously as we fulfill orders and take new ones. We made 10 million doses of vaccine available for ordering initially, with millions more available soon, so supply should not be a barrier to someone getting their young child vaccinated.”\n\nVaccines given in child-sized doses\n\nUnder the FDA’s authorization, the Moderna vaccine can be given as a two-dose primary series, with doses given four weeks apart, at 25 micrograms each dose, to infants and children 6 months through 5 years of age.\n\nWhile the FDA has authorized Moderna’s vaccine for children ages 6 to 17, the CDC has not yet recommended it for that age group, so those shots can’t be administered yet. The FDA authorization would allow children ages 6 to 11 to receive doses are 50 micrograms each. For those ages 12 and older, it would be administered as 100-microgram doses.\n\nThe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine now can be given as a three-dose primary series, at 3 micrograms each dose, for use in infants and children 6 months through 4 years. The vaccine is administered as a two-dose primary series at 10 micrograms per dose for children 5 to 11 and at 30 micrograms per dose for adolescents and adults ages 12 and older.\n\nCompleting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine series is a longer process, as the first two doses are administered three weeks apart, and then the third dose is given eight weeks later.\n\nDr. Jeannette Lee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, expressed concern about children not completing all three doses.\n\n“Three doses will certainly benefit. I have a lot of concern that many of these kids will not get a third dose,” Lee said. “My concern is that you have to get the three doses to really get what you need.”\n\nAs for children who might turn from age 4 to 5 at any point while completing their Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine series, the CDC recommends two options. The child could complete the two-dose primary series authorized for children ages 5 to 11, or they could complete the three-dose series for younger kids, but each of doses 2 and 3 may be either the dosage for younger children or ages 5 to 11.\n\nThe FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee determined that the benefits of both vaccines outweigh the risks and noted that the vaccines have been “well-tolerated” among the children who got them in clinical trials.\n\nAccording to clinical trial data, common side effects for both vaccines include pain at the injection site, headache, fever, chills and fatigue. The vaccines appeared to elicit similar immune responses in children as has been seen in adults.\n\nWhere young children can get vaccinated\n\nPediatricians’ offices and pharmacies are the main sites where young children could get vaccinated.\n\n“We know that parents are going to want to get their children vaccinated in pediatricians’ offices. Some people will go to a pharmacy, some people will go to a children’s hospital or some sort of a community health center,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said Monday on CBS.\n\n“But the bottom line is, I think a majority of parents are going to want to get their child vaccinated in their pediatrician’s office,” Jha said. “So, many pediatricians are going to be offering the vaccine.”\n\nAs for the pharmacy locations offering these child-sized vaccines, CVS and Walgreens have announced plans to provide vaccinations.\n\nCVS will begin administering Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines to children under five on Tuesday, a communications representative told CNN.\n\n“We will begin administering the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for eligible children 18 months through four years of age at our 1,100 MinuteClinic locations starting on Tuesday,” Matt Blanchette, senior manager of retail communications with CVS Pharmacy, told CNN in an email.\n\n“MinuteClinic is located inside select CVS Pharmacy stores in 35 states and Washington, DC,” Blanchette said. Appointments will be available on a rolling basis according to vaccine supply.\n\nBlanchette said children over 5 will still be able to access Covid-19 vaccines in CVS pharmacies.\n\nOn Saturday, Walgreens announced in a news release that appointments for vaccinations in young children will be available starting June 25. Walgreens will be vaccinating children 3 and older at “select” locations, and appointments can be scheduled online.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nHy-Vee pharmacies will have Covid-19 vaccinations available for children under 5 once doses are available, a communications representative told CNN on Monday.\n\n“Hy-Vee anticipates receiving its allocations for the newly approved age groups in the coming days,” Tina Potthoff, senior vice president of communications, wrote in an email.\n\n“As soon as we receive vaccine and our appointment scheduler is open for these age groups, we will post an update on our COVID-19 vaccine landing page, post on our Hy-Vee store Facebook pages, and contact media outlets in our eight-state region to make them aware of our pediatric hubs that are accepting appointments.”\n\nDue to federal regulations, she wrote, Hy-Vee will only be providing vaccinations to children 3 and older.\n\n“Under the PREP Act, retail pharmacies, including Hy-Vee pharmacies, are only authorized to administer vaccines to patients ages 3+,” Potthoff wrote in the email. “Patients younger than age 3 should visit their pediatrician or health care provider to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.”", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/22/covid-vaccine-kids-coming-soon-biden/8052527002/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids coming in weeks, Biden says. Pfizer says fall.", "text": "President Joe Biden is optimistic that vaccines for children under 12 years old could be available as early as August.\n\nBiden made the statement during a town hall Wednesday in Cincinnati hosted by CNN. After speaking with scientists, Biden said, he wasn't promised a specific date, but he did have an expectation.\n\n\"My expectation talking to the group of scientists we put together, over 20 of them, plus others in the field, is that sometime maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, they'll get a final approval,\" he said.\n\nThat's an unlikely timeline. Trials began in March for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for younger children. The results of the trials are expected in the fall, not within weeks.\n\nDr. Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of the Vaccine Clinical Research and Development at Pfizer, said an emergency use authorization was planned for the 5-to-11 age group in September or October during a presentation at a Johns Hopkins-University of Washington symposium on June 30. She said the 2- to 5-year-old group would follow soon after.\n\nChildren under 12 are still ineligible to receive the vaccine in the U.S., and Biden said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention probably will recommend that children who are not vaccinated wear masks in school.\n\n'It's limbo':Parents stuck between two COVID-19 worlds as young kids remain unvaccinated\n\n\"It's going to get a little bit tight in terms of, well, are Mom or Dad being honest that Johnny did or did not get vaccinated? That's going to raise questions,\" Biden said. \"It's a matter of community responsibility.\"\n\nOn July 9, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated children did not need to wear masks at school.\n\n\"Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,\" a press release from the CDC said.\n\nOn Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics had a different opinion and recommended that all children older than 2, regardless of their vaccinations, should wear a mask.\n\nCoronavirus cases have nearly tripled in the U.S. over the past two weeks. The delta variant of the virus, scientists say, is more contagious. A lambda variant was recently identified at a Houston-area hospital, but health experts said it doesn't appear as contagious.\n\n“I know there’s great interest in lambda, but I think people really need to be focused on delta,” said Dr. S. Wesley Long, Houston Methodist’s medical director of diagnostic biology. “Most importantly, regardless of the variant, our best defense against all these variants is vaccination.”\n\nOur World Data reports that 49.3 % of Americans are fully vaccinated. During the town hall, Biden urged people to get the vaccine.\n\n“We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination – it’s that basic, that simple,” Biden said.\n\nFauci to Sen. Paul:'You do not know what you are talking about'\n\n'Hard choice doesn't amount to coercion':Judge sides with Indiana University in student challenge to COVID-19 vaccine mandate\n\nContributing: Ryan Miller\n\nFollow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/10/iowa-new-cases-rise-state-reaches-500-000-covid-delta-variant-deaths-hospitalizations-vaccinations/6358506001/", "title": "COVID-19 in Iowa: State reaches 500000 total cases; new cases rising", "text": "More than half a million Iowans have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health.\n\nThe 9,067 new cases reported this week brought the state's total to 500,119 individual Iowans who have tested positive for the disease since it first reached the state last year. That means the coronavirus has infected about one in six Iowans at some point in the past two years.\n\nIowa's number of cases is again on the rise, with the state reporting an increase in new confirmed cases for the third week in a row. This week's average of 1,295 new reported cases per day was up 19% over the previous week.\n\nWhile cases are climbing, the state has an additional tool to curb the virus after federal regulators approved a COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 5.\n\nMore:US COVID-19 map: Tracking cases and deaths\n\nCOVID-19 hospitalizations, which had declined each of the previous four weeks, also increased, according to Wednesday's data. There were 524 Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19, including 113 in intensive care and 52 on ventilators. More than 70% of the patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated against the disease, including 85% of those in the ICU.\n\nThe share of the state's population that is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 increased just two-tenths of a percentage point in Wednesday's update, a slight decline from previous weeks. About 53% of the state's population is fully vaccinated, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Additional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that nearly one-fifth of those fully-vaccinated Iowans have also now received a booster dose — the extra shot now available to some at-risk populations.\n\nThe state also reported 97 additional COVID-19 deaths this week, some dating back to mid-September. COVID-19 has now caused or contributed to the deaths of 7,166 Iowans.\n\nHow many Iowa children have received the vaccine?\n\nAs has been the case for the last several months, children made up just under a quarter of the new COVID-19 cases reported this week, or about 2,000. Eight were hospitalized with the disease as of Wednesday's update.\n\nLast week, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine became available for children ages 5 to 11. Wednesday's data update did not yet show the number of doses that have been administered to children in that age group so far.\n\nMore:'We feel like we can move forward.' COVID-19 vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old now available\n\nHowever, about 7,000 Iowa children were able to start their vaccination process by the end of the weekend, according to Ken Sharp, an Iowa Department of Public Health administrator helping coordinate the vaccination campaign. On Wednesday, he called that \"good news,\" and promised the number of doses administered would rise.\n\nBiden administration officials have promised it would have its pediatric vaccination distribution program fully running this week after the Pfizer vaccine was approved for young children last week. In Iowa, the doses started being administered in many locations on Thursday, albeit with limited slots available. Many pharmacies that provide the adult vaccine were still getting their programs up and running through the weekend.\n\nMore:'We feel like we can move forward.' COVID-19 vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old now available\n\n\"There are some, I think, frustrations we're hearing that the parents weren't able to get the vaccine where they would normally go to get the vaccine, and I think it's just a matter of timing,\" Sharp told the State Board of Health at its regular meeting Wednesday. \"We're still taking that as positive news of parents are excited about getting their kids vaccinated and looking for that vaccine.\"\n\nThere are about 284,000 children ages 5 to 11 in Iowa, and the state received about 99,000 doses from the federal government, not including those shipped directly to pharmacies. Sharp said all 99 counties should have pediatric doses available by this week. The state has also ordered another 24,000 doses.\n\nCDC assumptions on vaccine take rates show about 30% of parents would want their child vaccinated immediately, Sharp said, which covers about 95,000 newly eligible children. Another 20% to 30% would likely wait a little bit or until it's more convenient, such as during other scheduled vaccinations. The remaining are hesitant, Sharp said.\n\n\"CDC has assured us that there will not be any supply chain issues for the pediatric vaccine, and right now, we feel like things are going as smoothly as they could be given the rollout of that new product,\" he told the board.\n\nMeanwhile, board member Dr. Donald Macfarlane, with University of Iowa Health Care, asked for a stronger pushback on anti-vaccine rhetoric.\n\nMacfarlane said he was concerned about how vaccine opponents are misusing the CDC's vaccine adverse event reporting system, known as VAERS. The data, he said, is made up of unverified, self-reported events that aren't necessarily associated with any vaccine.\n\nSharp said the state receives regular updates from the CDC about VAERS reports, and there have been zero Iowans who have died because they received the COVID-19 vaccine. Sharp told Macfarlane that the state health department would discuss how to better communicate that message.\n\n\"I think there is a very difficult message for the general public to understand what those data elements are and to understand that literally anyone can report into VAERS on a perceived correlation between a negative impact or adverse effect from a vaccine,\" Sharp said.\n\nRead more on COVID-19 in Iowa:\n\nThe latest COVID-19 numbers in Iowa\n\nThe latest data, as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, compared to the previous Wednesday.\n\nConfirmed cases: 500,119, an increase of 9,067\n\nDeaths: 7,166, an increase of 97\n\nTotal tested: 2,141,764\n\nTotal recovered: 465,549\n\nStatewide 14-day positivity rate: 8.9%\n\nHow many Iowans are hospitalized with COVID-19?\n\nHospitalizations: 524, up from 483 one week ago\n\nPatients in ICU: 113, up from 111\n\nPatients on ventilators: 52, down from 53\n\nHow many people in Polk and Dallas counties are vaccinated?\n\nIn Polk County, 288,796 (59%) residents are fully vaccinated, an increase of 1,330 (0.3 percentage points) since last week.\n\nIn Dallas County, 54,760 (59%) residents are fully vaccinated, an increase of 272 (0.3 percentage points).\n\nThe five counties in Iowa with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated as of Nov. 10 are Johnson (63%), Buena Vista (61%), Linn (59%), Polk (59%) and Dallas (59%) counties.\n\nFor a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated weekly.\n\nTim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, 515-284-8532, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/01/covid-vaccine-children-kids-approval/8564341002/", "title": "Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children: Where to ...", "text": "An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday voted to recommend Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11, and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on the committee's recommendations.\n\nNow vaccines will be available to eligible children across the country, and some locations have already begun offering shots.\n\nAt a news conference Wednesday, Walensky assured parents the science behind the decision to recommend the vaccine for younger kids is sound, and said the shots will protect them and others from getting sick.\n\n“In clinical trials, vaccination was found to be nearly 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 among children ages 5 to 11. In clinical trials, vaccine side effects were mild, self-limiting,” she said. \"The most common side effect was a sore arm.\"\n\nAlthough younger children are now able to get vaccinated, many parents still have questions. Here's everything health experts want them to know about the vaccine.\n\nDo kids need a COVID-19 vaccine? Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday issued a release supporting the CDC advisory committee's decision.\n\n\"Vaccinating children will protect children’s health and allow them to fully engage in all of the activities that are so important to their health and development,\" the release says.\n\n\"The AAP recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all children and adolescents 5 years of age and older who do not have contraindications using a vaccine authorized for use for their age.\"\n\nMany health experts are going on the record recommending children ages 5 to 11 get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as soon as it becomes available.\n\n“As pediatricians, our sole purpose is to take care of children and protect them,” said Dr. Stan Spinner, vice president and chief medical officer at Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Urgent Care. “We feel very comfortable (with this vaccine). If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be recommending it.”\n\nMore:Parents were confused about kids and COVID. The American Academy of Pediatrics stepped in.\n\nHundreds of children ages 5 to 11 have been hospitalized with COVID-19, and 94 have died this year, the FDA has reported. It was the eighth-leading cause of death in the age group over the past year, after accidents, cancer, malformations, murder, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and flu or pneumonia.\n\nChildren appear to be just as likely as adolescents and adults to catch COVID-19 and pass it on, health experts say. Though they seem to be less likely to become seriously ill, health experts urge parents not to take that chance.\n\n“A third of our pediatric patients admitted to the hospital ended up in the ICU with COVID,” Spinner said. “So it’s not a benign disease for anybody. ... Kids need the vaccine.”\n\nWhy should my kid get a COVID-19 vaccine?\n\nEven with a mild infection, children are still at risk for developing a dangerous immune overreaction called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. COVID-19 has led to more than 5,000 cases of the condition; the average age is 9.\n\nChildren are less likely to have long-term symptoms of COVID-19 than adults, experts say, but they still can suffer from so-called long-haul COVID.\n\nRecent data shows children are as likely to get infected by the delta coronavirus variant as adults, and about 50% of infections in children are asymptomatic, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser and the nation’s top infectious disease expert.\n\nFauci told reporters that vaccinating millions of children ages 5 to 11 will also stifle community transmission and nudge the country closer to herd immunity.\n\n“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” Fauci said.\n\nIf the pandemic is contained, health experts say, children will have more freedom to enjoy a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy, like going back to school with minimal restrictions and safely attending family events.\n\n“The last point for why to vaccinate children now is to really allow kids the freedom to be kids,” said Dr. Emmanuel Walter Jr., professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and chief medical officer of the Duke Human Institute.\n\nMore:Scientists examine the unique immune systems of kids as more get COVID-19\n\nWhere to get the COVID-19 vaccine for kids — Are pharmacies accepting appointments?\n\nPediatricians and primary care doctors, children's hospitals, pharmacies and clinics at schools are among the places where kids can get the vaccine.\n\nThe Biden administration said it has purchased enough vaccine to cover the 28 million American children in the 5 to 11 age group, and about 15 million doses will be available within the first week.\n\nThose locations include more than 25,000 pediatricians’ offices and primary care sites, more than 100 children’s hospitals and health systems, tens of thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of schools and community-based clinics. Administration officials say they are working with states and localities to enroll more sites.\n\nCVS and Walgreens, the two largest pharmacy chains in the country, are accepting appointments for COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 through 11.\n\nDid America’s schools open safely?We crunched the latest data on COVID and kids.\n\nHowever, some sites are waiting until they have vials of vaccine before opening their appointment books.\n\nBy the end of the week, the government website Vaccines.gov will list places where kids can get vaccinated in their neighborhood, Zients said at a news conference Wednesday.\n\nAt that point, parents and guardians can go to the website, type in their ZIP code, click a box specifying they're looking for the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine and get a list of clinics, physicians and pharmacies that have it available. The list is expected to expand over time as more sites open appointments.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids?\n\nSome locations around the country have already begun administering first doses to kids, and hundreds more sites are expected to open in the coming days as the national push to vaccinate about elementary school children ramps up.\n\nPresidential advisor Jeffrey Zients said Monday the Biden administration's distribution program will be \"running at full strength\" to cover all 28 million American children in the age group the week of Nov. 8.\n\nOn Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated the date in a statement, saying \"the program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8.\"\n\nHas the FDA approved the COVID vaccine for children?\n\nOn Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11.\n\nHowever, this does not mean the vaccine is \"approved\" for kids.\n\nEmergency use authorization allows Pfizer-BioNTech to provide safety and effectiveness data after tracking trial participants for an average of two months instead of the usual six months.\n\nIn the middle of a pandemic, it was more important to get vaccines to people faster, the FDA said, and vaccine side effects generally occur within the first four to six weeks after a shot.\n\nThe only age group that has official approval from the FDA is people 16 and older. Teenagers and children ages 12 to 15 have also been authorized to get the vaccine under emergency use.\n\nAn FDA official explains:Why don't COVID-19 vaccines have full authorization?\n\nWhere do children's vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson stand?\n\nModerna released its own study Monday finding that its COVID-19 vaccine at half the original adult dose is safe and effective in children 6 to 11. The company has not yet asked for authorization to provide its vaccine to this age group.\n\nA Johnson & Johnson spokesperson told USA TODAY the company has started the first phase 3 study in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years and anticipates results for dose and regimen in the coming months.\n\nWhat's the vaccine schedule and dose information for kids?\n\nThe vaccine would be given to children ages 5 to 11 in two shots, administered three weeks apart, at one-third of the dose given to adults and adolescents.\n\nThe adult dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 30 micrograms; the companies propose a 10-microgram dose in children ages 5 to 11.\n\nThe only difference in the children's Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the addition of one chemical called tri-sucrose. Tri-sucrose already is used in several other vaccines and makes the vaccine easier to dilute and remain stable in a refrigerator for up to 10 weeks, a Pfizer executive said.\n\nWhat were the results of Pfizer’s vaccine study?\n\nThe FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met last Tuesday to hear information on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from company officials as well as government experts who had reviewed the data.\n\nPfizer presented the results of several studies it has done among about 5,000 5- to 11-year-olds, which showed the vaccine was found to be safe with no severe vaccine-related side effects or dangerous allergic reactions.\n\nIn a subset of the children, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to be more than 90% protective against contracting symptomatic COVID-19. Of the 19 children in the study found to be infected with the coronavirus, only three received the active vaccine, compared with 16 who received a placebo.\n\nIn one of the studies, of about half the children, more than 11% had obesity and nearly 8% had asthma. Both groups appeared just as well protected from the vaccine as children without those conditions.\n\n\"Those are the people who are at the highest risk of getting infected,\" Spinner said. \"When we look at the children who have gotten sick, most of them had underlying conditions. Those are the ones that should be the first in line to get vaccinated.\"\n\nPhase 3 clinical data presented last year showed the vaccine was 95% effective in adults. But new research that has not yet been peer-reviewed suggests efficacy may be closer to 84% after six months.\n\nMore on underlying conditions:CDC adds mental health disorders to list of conditions linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19. Here's why.\n\nWhat are the vaccine side effects for kids?\n\nThe trials showed children experienced the same types of mostly minor side effects seen in adolescents and young adults.\n\nMany of those ages 5 to 11 had sore arms, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, chills and low-grade fevers that lasted a day or two.\n\nOne of the reasons researchers decreased the normal vaccine dose from 30 to 10 micrograms in children is to reduce the severity of side effects, said Jason Gallagher, clinical professor at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist in infectious diseases at Temple University Hospital.\n\n“A lot of the side effects that people complain about after getting the vaccine is related to the immune response,” he said. “Pfizer went back to the drawing board on dosing and found out that a lower dose (in children) is effective and safe than the dose we’ve been giving to teenagers and adults.”\n\nWhat can I give my child if they don't feel well after getting vaccinated?\n\nHealth experts say parents can give their children over-the-counter medicine like acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen to relieve any mild to moderate side effects after vaccination.\n\nBut the CDC does not recommend taking those medications before getting vaccinated in anticipation of side effects, because they might affect how well the vaccine works.\n\nWalter also suggests preparing your child before vaccination to expect these mild side effects.\n\n“Parents can have that discussion with their child that they may get a fever, they may feel a little achy or not feel as good the next day following vaccination and that’s to be expected,” he said.\n\nCould schools require children to be vaccinated?\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is available to children ages 12 to 18, and vaccine mandates for school vary by state.\n\nThe board of the Los Angeles Unified School District – which oversees the second-largest public school system in the country – voted to require students age 12 and up to be fully vaccinated. Those who take part in sports and other extracurricular activities should have taken both shots by the end of October and all other students by Dec. 19.\n\nNew York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, has required vaccinations only for 20,000 student-athletes in certain sports considered at high risk of spreading the virus.\n\nMore:California becomes first state to announce plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren\n\nWhile some districts mull over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, some states have banned schools from requiring vaccines.\n\nHealth experts say it’s too soon to say if schools will mandate COVID-19 shots after authorization or approval, but vaccines in schools have helped eradicate some diseases in the U.S. like smallpox and polio.\n\n“It’s to prevent disease in children themselves and prevent outbreaks in communities,\" said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. \"And those school requirements have been longstanding for many decades and they’ve led to very successful control of vaccine-preventable diseases.\"\n\nWill vaccinated children still need to wear masks?\n\nUntil a vaccine is available to children, public health experts, including the FDA's Peter Marks, have said that the best thing parents can do to protect their children – besides getting vaccinated themselves – is to encourage children to wear masks while indoors in public.\n\nCDC guidance recommending fully vaccinated people to wear masks inside could remain in place even after children 5 to 11 can get their shots, health experts say.\n\n“We’ve seen so much COVID-19 circulating in our communities, it will be critical to get the amount of transmission down before it’s likely the CDC might relax those guidelines,” said Dr. Evan Anderson, a physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.\n\nHe reminds parents that children may not have the full intended protection against COVID-19 until two weeks after their second dose and encourages them to continue following CDC and local school guidance regarding masks.\n\nWhen will children under 5 years old be vaccinated?\n\nThe companies are also studying their vaccine in children ages 2 to 5, and 6 months to age 2, but those trials are not yet complete. Younger children are being tested on a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer has reported it may have data by the end of the year. Before the vaccine becomes available to younger children and infants, the company will have to submit the data for FDA and CDC review.\n\nThe timing \"is going to depend on what the data show,” O'Leary said. “I think that people’s best guess is early 2022, but there’s a lot of uncertainty around that guess.”\n\nContributing: Karen Weintraub, Elizabeth Weise and Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/08/25/covid-vaccine-young-kids-when-available-safety-what-to-know/5572187001/", "title": "COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12: When are they coming?", "text": "Eight months after adult Americans began receiving COVID-19 vaccines, children under 12 are still not eligible for the shots.\n\nThat's left a lot of parents worried their children might get sick – and might get others around them sick, as well.\n\nChildren can catch COVID-19 and pass it on to others. Luckily, they are less likely than adults to become seriously ill. Roughly 4.5 million American children have become infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.\n\nThat number has risen lately, however, with children making up a higher proportion of the seriously ill. Many adults are protected by vaccines and the highly contagious delta variant now accounts for most of the infections in the U.S. Across the country. About 180,000 children have been infected in the past week, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.\n\nWe pose and answer several common questions about young children and COVID-19 vaccines:\n\nWhat age group can currently get COVID-19 vaccines?\n\nAdults and children 12 and up are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, now called Comirnaty.\n\nOnly adults are eligible to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because their studies in children have not yet been completed.\n\nWhy aren't COVID-19 vaccines available yet for kids under 12?\n\nTraditionally, drugs are studied first in adults and then move to adolescents, then children, then younger children, as they are proven safe and effective in each group.\n\nWith COVID-19 vaccines, large clinical trials in adults (and in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech, older teens) took place in the second half of last year and studies in teens and then younger children began earlier this year.\n\nRead more:Pfizer's vaccine is FDA-approved for adults, but it's still a 'no-no' to vaccinate kids under 12\n\nMore colleges are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine. Some are starting to kick out unvaccinated students.\n\nWhat's the status of clinical trials on younger children?\n\nAll three companies are studying their vaccines in children, first in adolescents, then 5- to 11-year-olds, then 2- to 5-year-olds followed by infants, 6 months and up. Younger babies are believed to have some protection from their vaccinated mothers. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that pregnant people get vaccinated to protect themselves because they are at higher risk for a serious COVID-19 infection, and their unborn child would receive some protection.\n\nBecause the vaccines were already proven safe and effective in tens of thousands of adults, the studies in children have been allowed to be smaller – on the order of 3,000-4,000, instead of 30,000-40,000.\n\nChildren are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19 than older adults, with risks generally declining with age. So regulators want to make sure that vaccines are safe enough to justify use in each age group.\n\nAdvisory panels to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration decided that the benefits outweigh the risks of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents age 12 to 15.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech has said its study in children ages 5 to 11 should be completed early this fall, and in younger children early next year.\n\nModerna began its trials several months after Pfizer-BioNTech, so it is likely to complete its trials some time later, though it has not released a detailed timetable.\n\nIn May, the company showed its vaccine was safe and extremely effective in adolescents. Out of 3,700 12- to 17-year-old volunteers, no one who was fully vaccinated with the active vaccine developed the virus, the study found.\n\nJ&J hasn't yet started its studies in minors, though it is in active discussions with the FDA to begin four trials with a minimum of 4,500 children. The first trial, in adolescents 12 to 17, is expected to begin this fall with the others to follow.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids under 12?\n\nThe FDA requires longer-term follow-up data on children than adults, \"to make sure that the safety is adequate,\" according to Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the FDA division tasked with reviewing vaccines.\n\nThe FDA has not given a sense of how long it would take to review the research, but previous emergency use authorization requests have taken as long as eight weeks, suggesting that vaccines are unlikely to be available to grade schoolers until very late this year or early next.\n\nTwo- to 5-year-olds should be able to get shots by the end of winter or early spring 2022.\n\nIs the vaccine dosage the same for children as adults?\n\nThe dose is the same for 12- to 15-year-olds as for adults, but dosage for younger children is likely to be lower. That's one of the things being worked out in the trials.\n\nIn early trials, Pfizer-BioNTech said 112 children received doses of 10, 20, or 30 micrograms, with an option for 3 micrograms in the youngest children.\n\nCurrently, they are testing 10 micrograms in 5- to 11-year-olds and 3 micrograms in children under 5. Adults and adolescents get 30 micrograms.\n\nIs the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nIn adolescents, the vaccines seem to be as safe as they are in adults, though teens may be more likely to suffer side effects like post-vaccine pain, fatigue and fevers.\n\nThe risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, also appears to be higher in younger people, particularly males, after vaccination.\n\n'Keep your guard up': CDC studies show waning COVID vaccine efficacy as delta variant sweeps US\n\nWhy shouldn't parents try to vaccinate their younger children now?\n\nLegally, now that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has received full FDA approval, doctors can prescribe it to anyone, including young children.\n\nBut the FDA and leading pediatricians warned this week that it's a terrible idea to give shots designed for adults to children under 12.\n\nThe dose is likely to be more than they need, causing unnecessary side effects, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has urged the FDA to expedite the process of authorizing shots for younger children.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/10/27/covid-vaccines-kids-5-11-what-we-know-dont-know/8554544002/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids 5-11 are coming: What we know and what ...", "text": "The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine could become available for children ages 5 to 11 as soon as next week.\n\nSerious COVID-19 infections have been rare among the 28 million American children ages 5-11.\n\nYounger children will be given a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose one-third as large as the dose given to those over 12, to minimize side effects while maintaining effectiveness.\n\nCorrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the estimated number of children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech active vaccine in clinical trials.\n\nThe evidence supporting COVID-19 vaccines in adults is clear. In August, an unvaccinated adult was six times more likely to test positive and 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than someone who was vaccinated.\n\nThe story, though, isn't as clear-cut with children ages 5 to 11, according to data presented Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nAfter listening for hours to government experts and officials from Pfizer-BioNTech, an advisory panel to the FDA concluded the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks for this age group.\n\nA similar discussion will take place next week at an all-day meeting of a CDC advisory panel. If they sign off, along with FDA and CDC officials, as seems likely, vaccines could become available for children ages 5 to 11 as soon as the middle of next week.\n\nHow does COVID-19 affect me? Don’t miss an update with the Coronavirus Watch newsletter\n\nThat means parents are likely soon to be faced with a choice: Would they rather take the small chance of their child falling seriously ill from COVID-19, or the even smaller chance that they will be harmed by the shots intended to protect against it?\n\nTo help with that decision, USA TODAY has summarized the data presented to the FDA panel, including what is known and what remains unknown.\n\nEven without vaccination, it's possible to protect children by wearing masks indoors and vaccinating the adults in their lives, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing Wednesday.\n\nCOVID-19 in younger children\n\nSerious COVID-19 infections have been rare among the 28 million American children ages 5-11.\n\nAccording to one study, as many as 42% of children in this age group have been infected since the start of the pandemic, leading to more than 8,000 hospitalizations and just under 100 deaths.\n\nCases in children spiked this summer, because of the delta variant, though children do not appear to be getting sicker from this variant than from others.\n\nAlthough at substantially lower rates than in adults, children ages 5-11 can also suffer from lingering symptoms of COVID-19 infections – including monthslong fatigue, pain, headaches, insomnia and trouble concentrating.\n\nAll children, regardless of age, can catch and pass on COVID-19, a recent Harvard study confirmed.\n\nIt's also become clear over the past year how important it is to keep children in school, and vaccinating kids would undoubtedly reduce the number of school closures, which have kept more than 1 million children away from their classrooms this fall.\n\nIn the 2019-2020 flu season, considered a bad year for the virus, 107 children ages 5 and older died of flu. More children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 than were hospitalized with flu in 2017-2018. Millions of parents choose to vaccinate their kids against flu to protect them and elders.\n\nPfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson:Comparing the COVID-19 vaccines\n\nRisks of vaccination for kids 5-11\n\nEvery vaccine brings some risks.\n\nIn this case, the risks are theoretical. None of the roughly 3,500 children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in clinical trials suffered a serious side effect tied to the shots, according to company data reviewed by the FDA.\n\nThose who oppose vaccination in kids, who flooded the inboxes of advisory panel members last weekend, argued vaccines are unnecessary in this age group, because so few children have been seriously harmed by their COVID-19 infection.\n\nBenefits of COVID-19 vaccination\n\nPfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is clearly effective in children 5-11, preventing more than 90% of infections, according to one study in about 2,500 children.\n\nThe vaccine appears to be safe, with most side effects in line with those experienced by adolescents and adults, including temporary pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue and low-grade fevers.\n\nYounger children will be given a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose one-third as large as the dose given to those over 12, to minimize side effects while maintaining effectiveness.\n\nThe only member of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to abstain from the vote, Dr. Michael Kurilla, expressed concern in a later statement about the duration and strength of protection.\n\nChildren in the trial were only followed for a few months, he noted, and since at least half of children in this age group see no symptoms when infected with COVID-19, he thought the studies overestimated the risk of infection and therefore the benefit of vaccination.\n\nWhat we still don't know\n\nThere remain unanswered questions about how children ages 5-11 will respond to vaccines:\n\nWhat about rare side effects? Pfizer-BioNTech's safety trials included about 5,000 children, which is not enough to identify rare side effects.\n\nThe potential side effect of greatest concern is called myocarditis, a swelling of the heart muscle that can also be caused by COVID-19. Myocarditis after vaccination has been seen mainly in adolescents and young adults, mostly male, after their second dose of vaccine.\n\nOut of every million 16- and 17-year-old boys who have been vaccinated, 69 have developed the condition, compared to just two out of every million men in their 40s. None has died.\n\nTracking COVID-19 vaccine distribution by state:How many people have been vaccinated in the US?\n\nMyocarditis is more common generally in older teenagers and young adults and lower in the 5- to 11-age group, but it's not clear whether that would be true if caused by the vaccine.\n\n\"We're worried about a side effect that we can't measure yet, but it's probably real,\" said committee member Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.\n\n\"We're never going to learn how safe it is until we start giving it,\" he added.\n\nWhat about long-term effects and benefits? As with adults, vaccines in children are unlikely to cause long-term health effects not seen within the first weeks after the shots. In one of two studies, children were followed for an average of two months; in the other, just a few weeks so far.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, like the one from Moderna, triggers the body to produce a harmless protein found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19, so the immune system will recognize it and respond if it sees the complete virus.\n\nThis production does not last long and the messenger RNA used to deliver the vaccine does not stick around long or get into the cell nucleus where the DNA is stored, so it cannot make fundamental changes to the cell's activities.\n\nAs with the adult vaccines, it's unknown how long a COVID-19 vaccine will protect a child ages 5 to 11 against infection or whether boosters will be needed.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Paul Offit said he always wishes he had more information, but felt he had enough in this case to decide in favor of vaccinations.\n\n\"It's always nerve-wracking when you're asked to make a decision for millions of children based on studies of only a few thousand,\" said Offit, an infectious disease expert at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. \"For me, I think I know enough to move forward with a 'yes' vote.\"\n\nOther factors to consider for parents\n\nInfection rates:An FDA analysis of the vaccine's safety and effectiveness in kids concludes that the benefits outweigh the risks until infection rates fall below 5% of those at their height in September.\n\nInfection rates are falling right now throughout most of the country, but is not clear whether they will climb again with the winter (respiratory viruses like COVID-19 tend to increase in winter) or whether a new variant will pop up that will make vaccination more important.\n\nPrevious infection: A child who has already been infected with COVID-19 carries some protection against the virus and is less likely to fall seriously ill. Generally, a vaccine provides more predictable protection than infection, but an infection may offer broader protection against variants, studies in adults have shown.\n\nA child's vulnerability: Children who are immunocompromised or have health issues like obesity and metabolic disease are at higher risk for serious cases. Two-thirds of children hospitalized for COVID-19 have had preexisting health conditions. A child in this category may benefit more from vaccination than a healthy child.\n\nAlso, children of color – Black, brown or Native American – have been hospitalized at three times the rate of white children, CDC epidemiologist Fiona Havers told the committee Tuesday. Perhaps because of their family's exposures and their own health risks, they may benefit more from vaccination.\n\nMapping coronavirus:Tracking U.S. cases and deaths\n\n\"I do believe that children at highest risk do need to be vaccinated,\" said Dr. James Hildreth, a committee member and president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.\n\nHildreth voted along with the majority of the committee, supporting vaccines, but said he struggled with the decision, because he doesn't think all children need to be vaccinated.\n\n\"In some ways we're vaccinating children to protect adults, and it should be the other way around,\" he said. \"Our focus should be on vaccinating adults to protect the children.\"\n\nThe vulnerability in the child's life: If the child lives with an immunocompromised parent or an older relative, vaccination may make more sense. Though it's not clear whether vaccines reduce transmission, a child who is vaccinated may be less likely to pass on the virus.\n\nA parent's anxiety level: There are no known serious risks from vaccination and its effectiveness is clear, so a parent who would feel better if their child is vaccinated can easily justify their decision.\n\n\"Parents are terrified of sending their kids to school,\" said Dr. Jay Portnoy, a pediatric immunologist and allergist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, who said he wanted to give them a chance to decide whether to get their child vaccinated.\n\n\"The evidence is pretty clear that this vaccine is worthwhile,\" he concluded.\n\nKurilla came to a different conclusion. In his statement about abstaining, he ended by saying: \"While there are clearly high risk groups in the 5-11 age group for which the vaccine would significantly reduce serious disease, I do not expect protection from infection to last more than a few months and this may negatively affect public perception of vaccines.\"\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/health/covid-vaccine-kids-under-5-timeline/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccine for children under 5 could come as early as June ...", "text": "(CNN) Covid-19 vaccines could be authorized for the United States' youngest children as early as June, according to the US Food and Drug Administration's latest meeting schedule .\n\nThe agency announced Friday it is reserving dates in June for its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) to meet to discuss updates to vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech's emergency use authorizations that would include making younger ages eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.\n\nTentative meeting dates for VRBPAC are June 8, 21 and 22.\n\nFollowing the advisory committee's deliberations, FDA officials could consider authorizing vaccines for younger children — with that decision also hinging on the agency's reviews of the vaccine data.\n\n\"As we continue to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are a number of anticipated submissions and scientific questions that will benefit from discussion with our advisory committee members,\" Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in Friday's announcement\n\n\"We are providing a tentative schedule for discussion of these submissions, as these meetings will cover a number of topics that are of great interest to the general public,\" Marks said. \"The agency is committed to a thorough and transparent process that considers the input of our independent advisors and provides insight into our review of the COVID-19 vaccines. We intend to move quickly with any authorizations that are appropriate once our work is completed.\"\n\nIt has been more than a year since adults first became eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, and currently, children 5 and older are eligible to get vaccinated. But no Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized yet for children younger than 5 in the US -- about 18 million people -- and, even though FDA advisers plan to meet in June, an exact timeline for potential authorization is still not clear.\n\nModerna officials have said the FDA is expected to move fast, and a Pfizer official suggested its vaccine for younger children could be available in June, if it's authorized.\n\nWhy is it taking so long to get vaccines for children under 5?\n\nThe timeline for making Covid-19 vaccines available for children under 5 hit somewhat of a delay earlier this year when a VRBPAC meeting to discuss the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in February was postponed so that additional data on vaccines for this age group could be reviewed.\n\nAt the time, the FDA was waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to submit data from an ongoing trial on a three-dose regimen in these younger children before moving forward with consideration of an emergency use authorization, allowing the FDA to review all data available on the efficacy of each regimen option: two doses or three doses.\n\nIf the original meeting had occurred in February, the committee would not have seen all available data to have an informed discussion. The latest clinical trial data from Pfizer/BioNTech suggests that in this age group, two doses seemed to work well against the Delta coronavirus variant but not against the Omicron variant.\n\nAs for Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, the company announced Thursday that it is seeking emergency use authorization from the FDA for children 6 months through 5 years of age.\n\nJust recently, in late March, Moderna announced results of a clinical trial that included 2,500 children ages 6 months through 24 months and 4,200 children ages 2 through 5. The company said that two 25-microgram doses of its vaccine led to a similar immune response in young children as two 100-microgram doses for adults ages 18 to 25. And it said this should predict protection from Covid-19 and severe Covid-19 down to 6 months of age.\n\nWhile Moderna has shared some data on two doses of Covid-19 vaccine for younger children, Pfizer and BioNTech's data on three doses for younger children is not yet available.\n\nThe FDA is weighing whether to consider emergency use authorization for both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for young children at the same time, rather than considering them separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said last week.\n\n\"Two products that are similar but not identical, particularly with regard to the dose, and what the FDA wants to do is to get it so that we don't confuse people to say 'this is the dose. This is the dose regimen for children within that age group of 6 months to 5 years,' \" Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Kasie Hunt.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine was made to protect against the original strain of the coronavirus, and the initial series of two 3-milligram doses tested in kids under 5 wasn't powerful enough to keep them safe from the more infectious Omicron variant.\n\n\"It didn't meet the criteria for efficacy,\" Fauci said. \"There was never a safety issue, but it didn't meet the criteria, which then had them go back and do a study with a third dose as a part of the primary regimen.\"\n\nPfizer CEO Albert Bourla said publicly that the company's goal is to have its Covid-19 vaccine available for young children by summer.\n\nHow long would it be for my child to get the vaccine after authorization?\n\nIf the FDA authorizes the shots, vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next will vote on whether the vaccine should be recommended for young children. The CDC director will then need to sign off on a vaccine recommendation before shots can be administered.\n\nThat process could happen as quickly as within just a few days.\n\nHow many kids 5 and older have already received a Covid-19 vaccine?\n\nThe youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the US, children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one, according to the latest CDC data\n\nJust over a third of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated.\n\nBut vaccination rates are twice as high among adolescents, and overall, about 43% of currently eligible children ages 5 to 17 are fully vaccinated -- about 23 million in all.\n\nOverall, as of Friday, about 66% of the US population is fully vaccinated, including 76% of adults and 90% of seniors. Among adolescents ages 12 to 17, the vaccination rate is 69%.\n\nWhat's the risk to kids under 5 if they get Covid-19?\n\nEven though children are far less likely than adults to be hospitalized or to die from Covid-19, it is not a benign disease in young ages, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).\n\nThe number of new Covid-19 cases among children in the US grew nearly 12% last week from the week before, the AAP announced Monday , but they made up a smaller share of all new cases than they did the week before.\n\nAbout 37,073 kids tested positive for Covid-19 during the week ending April 21, the second consecutive week of increasing child cases after months of declines.\n\nHowever, this was 16.3% of all new Covid-19 cases in the US last week, 10 percentage points less than the week before.\n\nOverall, during the Omicron surge, more children were sent to the hospital than in earlier waves. Among states that report hospitalization information by age, kids were 1.2% to 4.6% of the total cumulative hospitalizations, a number that has remained consistent for the past four weeks and has stayed relatively steady throughout the pandemic.\n\nAmong states that reported mortality data, kids were up to 0.27% of all Covid-19 deaths, a number that has also remained steady.\n\nFor now, how can I protect my child until the Covid-19 vaccine is available?\n\nWhile parents are waiting to vaccinate their little ones, there is something they can do to protect the children.\n\nAll adults who interact with the children should be vaccinated, the experts say, and ideally boosted. Adults are also advised to use masks around unvaccinated children, even as many mandates have fallen away.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nDr. Doran Fink, who oversees the FDA's clinical and toxicological review of investigational and US-licensed vaccines, said in a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices this month that he understood parents' concerns. He also promised that the FDA would work \"diligently\" to verify any data submitted.\n\n\"We know that many parents and caregivers and health care providers are anxious to have Covid vaccines available for this age group,\" Fink said. \"I do want to reassure the committee and the public that we understand this concern, and we want to have available safe and effective vaccines for all age groups who will benefit from them.\"", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/08/pfizer-covid-vaccine-next-phase-trials-young-children-begin/7602063002/", "title": "Pfizer COVID vaccine: Next phase of trials in young children to begin", "text": "Pfizer released details Tuesday about the progress of its COVID-19 vaccination trials in children, showing that they have completed early testing and are moving forward with lower-dose trials in younger kids.\n\nChildren are less likely than adults to have a serious case of COVID-19, so drug companies are trying to minimize vaccine side effects while maximizing benefits.\n\nFor now, Pfizer, which collaborates with German biotech BioNTech, is testing its vaccine at lower doses in grade schoolers than adolescents and still lower doses in younger children.\n\nPfizer and BioNTech already have studied their vaccine in 2,260 adolescents age 12 to and 15 and received authorization to provide them shots in the United States. Their vaccine trials showed that adolescents developed a strong antibody response to the virus. The vaccine prevented infections and did not lead to intolerable side effects.\n\nThe companies also have completed early trials in a small number of younger children to show safety and establish relevant vaccine doses. As is typical with trials in children, volunteers have been divided into three age groups: ages 5 to 11, 2 to 5, and 6 months to 2 years.\n\nVaccines 2.0: Next-generation COVID-19 shots will be cheaper, easier to deliver and protect against more viruses, industry leaders say\n\nThe 112 children in those trials received doses of either 10, 20 or 30 micrograms, with an option for 3 micrograms in the youngest children.\n\nLarger trials to evaluate safety and immune response have already begun in 5- to 11-year-olds at 10 micrograms and are expected to begin in the younger age groups in the next few weeks, according to a statement from Pfizer. Children under 5 will receive the 3 microgram dose.\n\nThose trials will include 4,500 volunteers across all three age groups in the U.S., Finland, Poland and Spain. Trial organizers are working to ensure a diversity of trial participants, the company said.\n\nOne child will receive a placebo for every two that get the active vaccine. Children who receive the placebo will be given the option to get the active shots if the vaccine is authorized within six months of their participation.\n\nMore:How does COVID-19 end in the US? Likely with a death rate Americans are willing to 'accept'\n\nIf those trials prove safety and immune response, the companies expect to request federal authorization in September or October to provide the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11, and a little later in the fall for younger children.\n\nAt a later date, the companies may consider vaccinating infants once they confirm safety in older children.\n\nAs with adults and older teens, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be given to children with two shots, spaced about three weeks apart.\n\nUnlike adults, the companies will not be required to prove that the vaccines prevent most infections – which is no longer practical because of low rates of infection in the U.S. and even lower rates among children. Instead, vaccine makers will have to show that their shots produce an equivalent or better immune response than in young people 16 to 25.\n\nModerna and Johnson & Johnson, which also make authorized COVID-19 vaccines, are testing their shots in children as well.\n\nTo volunteer your child for a Pfizer-BioNTech trial, click here.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/13/fda-advisors-consider-recommending-covid-19-vaccines-young-children/7571523001/", "title": "FDA advisers to review, likely recommend COVID-19 vaccines for ...", "text": "An FDA expert advisory panel meets this week and will likely recommend two COVID vaccines for the youngest children.\n\nThe vaccines under review are Moderna's for ages 6 months to 17 years and Pfizer-BioNTech's for children ages 6 months to 5 years.\n\nIf the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21, the Biden administration has said.\n\nA federal advisory panel is likely this week to recommend two COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children, as well as a second option for older kids whose access has been limited to Pfizer-BioNTech shots.\n\nAccording to detailed information made public Friday and Sunday, Food and Drug Administration staff reviewed safety and effectiveness data for the Moderna vaccine for people ages 6 months to 17 years and for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThe review was positive, raising no new safety issues or concerns about trial data, most of which had been released by the companies.\n\nAn FDA expert advisory panel will hold all-day meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the data, but the staff review suggests that there will be no major surprises and that the panel will recommend authorization of both vaccines.\n\nIf that happens and the FDA commissioner signs off on the shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will follow the same process, and a different expert advisory panel will do a review Friday and Saturday. The CDC director would have to endorse the vaccines before the companies would be allowed to provide them.\n\nThe Biden administration said that if the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21 (a day after the federal Juneteenth holiday) at pharmacies, pediatricians' offices, libraries, children's museums, health centers and other outlets.\n\nThe federal government pre-purchased vaccine doses, which will be provided at no cost to families.\n\nThose ‘free’ COVID-19 tests? Labs rake in millions in tax dollars, study says\n\nAdvocates are eager for vaccines to finally be extended to young children, the only major group of Americans left unprotected by vaccines.\n\n\"This moment is bittersweet,\" said Fatima Khan, co-founder of Protect Their Future, a grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists. \"We're grateful to access a safe vaccine but also troubled by how long it took. … We must learn from this experience and fix root bureaucratic issues that caused the delays so that our children are never left behind again.\"\n\nThe only vaccine available for children has been Pfizer-BioNTech's, authorized for those 5 and up. Traditionally, drugs and vaccines are studied first in adults, then in adolescents and progressively younger children, moving down in age as safety and effectiveness are proved in older groups.\n\nBabies younger than 6 months are not expected to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, vaccination during pregnancy, which has been safe, passes on protection that lasts for about the first six months of life.\n\nCompanies determined the most effective doses of COVID-19 vaccines for each eligible age group, while minimizing side effects.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech offers adults and adolescents a two-dose initial vaccine series, with 30 micrograms of active ingredients in each shot. Children ages 5-11 receive 10 micrograms of the vaccine, and the youngest children would get a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, found that two doses were not adequately protective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus, so they asked the FDA and CDC to authorize a three-dose series for children ages 6 months through 4 years old. Older children are authorized to receive a booster dose to protect against the latest variants.\n\nAdults get two 100-microgram doses of the Moderna vaccine, which is based on the same mRNA technology as Pfizer-BioNTech's, for their initial series. The company proposed the same dosage for teens, two 50-microgram shots for younger children and two 25-microgram doses for the youngest children.\n\nModerna tested its vaccine in two doses only, and it appears less effective in the youngest children.\n\nOn Tuesday, the FDA advisory panel, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, will review data on Moderna's vaccine for children 6 to 17.\n\nOn Wednesday, the panel will decide whether to recommend Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccines for children as young as 6 months.\n\nVaccine side effects, dosage for children and what studies have found\n\nVaccine side effects in the youngest age groups were similar to those in older children, including short-term fever and redness at the injection site, studies showed.\n\nNeither vaccine trial in young children found any cases of allergic reactions to the shots or myocarditis, the swelling of the heart muscle occasionally seen among adolescent boys and young men after vaccination.\n\nIn the Pfizer-BioNTech trial, three shots – the third given at least eight weeks after the second – protected more than 75% of children ages 6 months to 2 years and 82% of those ages 2 to 5, and there was no significant increase in side effects. The trial included about 4,500 children in five countries; twice as many participants got the active vaccine than got a placebo.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech trial had been designed to wait for results until 21 children in either the placebo or active vaccine group contracted COVID-19. Although cases have risen in recent weeks, only 10 had tested positive for the coronavirus this month, so technically, the effectiveness results are considered preliminary.\n\nIn Moderna's trial of 6,700 children ages 6 months to under 6, company researchers found that two 25-microgram doses led the children to develop levels of virus-fighting antibodies comparable to young adults who received two full-strength shots.\n\nIn the study, which took place during the omicron wave, researchers found the vaccine was 51% effective among children 6 months to under 2 and 37% effective among children 2 to under 6.\n\nAmong older children, a 50-microgram dose appeared to be safe and effective, according to company data and the FDA analysis.\n\nModerna filed a year ago for authorization of its vaccine in adolescents, but the FDA held the application, awaiting more information on the risks of myocarditis after vaccination. The committee will review more recent data and decide whether the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of myocarditis in that age group.\n\nTeens and young adults, particularly males, appear to be at the highest risk for this side effect, though it is generally milder than the myocarditis caused by infection with COVID-19.\n\n5 million doses of each vaccine available by June 21\n\nThe FDA advisory panel is likely to make a recommendation at the end of each day's meeting: Tuesday on Moderna's vaccine for children ages 6-17 and Wednesday on both vaccines for young children.\n\nAdministration officials said last week they started accepting state and local orders for the shots and expect to have 5 million doses each of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for young children available on June 21 and millions more soon thereafter.\n\n\"If the FDA and the CDC recommend these vaccines, this would mark an important moment in the pandemic,\" Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said at a news conference last week. \"It would mean that for the first time, essentially every American – from our oldest to our youngest – would be eligible for the protection that vaccines provide.\"\n\nContributing: Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}]}