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US to send more aid to Ukraine ‘soon’ amid funding concerns, White House says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

The U.S. will be sending another aid package to Ukraine “soon,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, in an effort to assuage concerns about diminishing support for the embattled country.“There is [a] strong, very strong international coalition behind Ukraine. And if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin thinks he can outlast us, he’s wrong. He’s wrong. And so we will have another package of aid for Ukraine soon to signal our continued support for the brave people of Ukraine,” Jean-Pierre said during a White House press briefing. The latest aid package will come later this week, according to a U.S. official.The announcement comes two days after Congress passed an 11th hour government funding bill that did not include aid for Ukraine, an omission that was a blow for both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden, who has made support for Ukraine one of his priorities as he seeks reelection in 2024.Zelenskyy met with congressional leadership in...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg honored on new postage stamp

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

(CNN) — The United States Postal Service on Monday released its postage stamp honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a feminist icon who served for years as the senior-most member of the court’s liberal wing.The USPS announced last year that it would feature an oil painting of the justice on a “Forever” stamp, which currently costs 66 cents. The painting shows the justice in a black judicial robe and a white collar, which became an iconic part of her wardrobe. Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of 87.Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spera told CNN that the honor “would have been beyond her wildest dreams.”“She worked as hard as she could for as long as she could, and did the very best that she could,” Spera told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in an interview that aired Monday on “This Morning.”Spera said her grandmother “would be absolutely delighted” that a record four women are serving on the highest court’s bench.“As sh...

Concord, NH police investigate report of man attempting to lure child into vehicle

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

Police in Concord, New Hampshire, are asking the public for help after receiving a report of a man attempting to lure a 9-year-old girl into his vehicle.The Concord Police Department said its investigation was launched after officers were first called in on Thursday, Sept. 28 around 4:15 p.m.According to a news release, responding officers learned from the girl and her father that the 9 year old had been riding a bike on Fisherville Road when a male suspect approached and tried enticing her into entering his car.Police were also provided a license plate of the suspected vehicle and, according to the department, were able to locate and interview a possible suspect.As of Monday, Oct. 2, though, Concord PD said no arrests had been made in the case, and that the investigation was ongoing.Anyone with information on the incident, which occurred near a Cumberland Farms at 47 Fisherville Rd., is asked to contact Detective Steve Hemming from the Concord Police Department Criminal Investigati...

Disney sued over ‘severe’ injuries allegedly caused by ‘wedgie’ from water slide

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

(CNN) — Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is facing a lawsuit related to an “injurious wedgie” that court documents allege resulted from riding a 214-foot water slide in the resort’s Typhoon Lagoon water park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.The suit pertains to an incident that took place on October 14, 2019, on the Humunga Kowabunga water slide during a two-week visit to Walt Disney World by plaintiffs Emma and Edward McGuinness and their family. The family visited the resort in part to celebrate Emma McGuinness’ 30th birthday.The slide, which Disney bills on its website as a “near-vertical, 5-story drop — in the dark,” descends 214 feet and plunges riders into a pool of water to end the ride.The suit, which was filed last week in the Circuit Court for Orange County, Florida, alleges that Disney knew, or should have known, of the risk of painful “wedgies,” particularly for women.“Specifically, when a rider of The Slide reached the bottom of the ride and traveled into the pool of wate...

Mayo Clinic Minute: The importance of supplemental screenings for dense breasts

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

Sonya Goins | (TNS) Mayo Clinic News NetworkYou might need supplemental screenings if you’ve been diagnosed with dense breast tissue. Women with dense breast tissue have less fat and more glandular and connective tissue. They are also at a higher risk of developing cancer.Dense breast tissue refers to the way breast tissue appears on a mammogram. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 50% of women have this type of breast tissue.Dr. Kristin Robinson, a Mayo Clinic breast radiologist, encourages women with dense breast tissue to have additional screenings.What are some additional screenings?Supplemental screenings are a good idea if your mammogram shows you have dense breast tissue.“The dense tissue on a mammogram looks white, and cancer looks white,” says Dr. Robinson.She says these exams can assist in identifying cancer. Diagnostic tools, like MRI, use powerful magnets and radio waves to create cross-sectional images of the breasts.R...

What to expect for the flu, RSV and COVID-19 respiratory season

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

Deb Balzer | (TNS) Mayo Clinic News NetworkInfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19 are all part of the seasonal respiratory virus lineup. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the upcoming fall and winter are expected to have a similar number of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases as last year. However, they say it’s important to note that these hospitalization numbers are higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic when the leading causes were the flu and RSV.Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, says researchers in the Northern Hemisphere look to the trends in the Southern Hemisphere, where winter is ending, to help forecast the upcoming respiratory season.“We saw in Australia that they had a typical to, in some areas, more severe influenza season. And that’s what I expect this year is more of what we saw pre-pandemic,” says Dr. Binnicker.“Whether it...

Lies, echo chambers and polarization: Misinformation and disinformation reaching new peaks as 2024 approaches

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

With the 2024 presidential election still more than one year away, voters have been flooded with misinformation and disinformation at a pace never seen before.The disinformation has led to increasing political polarization in the country as former President Donald Trump faces four criminal indictments and current President Joe Biden faces an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans.The most prominent example of disinformation, observers said, is that Trump maintains that he won the 2020 presidential election, something repeated by his supporters for more than two years. That misinformation helped cause the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection that led to more than 1,000 rioters being arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol and trying to stop the Electoral College votes that eventually confirmed Biden as president.The ongoing clash has led to a nationwide battle on the facts that has not cooled.“This is totally on the increase,” said Scott McLean, a longtime political science professor at Quinni...

The Supreme Court opens its new term with a case about prison terms for drug dealers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court opened its new term Monday with a case about prison terms for drug dealers and rejections of hundreds of appeals, including one from an attorney who pushed a plan to keep former President Donald Trump in power.The court turned away attorney John Eastman’s effort to have a lower-court ruling thrown out that said Eastman and Trump had “more likely than not” committed a crime by trying to keep Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.Justice Clarence Thomas, who once employed Eastman as a law clerk, did not take part in the court’s consideration of Eastman’s appeal.The only case argued Monday concerns the meaning of the word “and” in a federal law dealing with prison terms for low-level drug dealers. The length of thousands of sentences a year is at stake.“I think this is a very hard case,” Justice Amy Coney Ba...

Alok is among the most famous DJs in the world, and he wants to make it a better place

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Alok is one of the biggest DJs on the planet, but at just 32 years old, he’s learned that fortune and fame don’t equal happiness.“I was 24. I was the No. 1 DJ in Brazil. I had financial success, popularity. And I was feeling a huge emptiness because I said if this is the meaning of life for me, life has no meaning,” said the Brazilian electronic dance music star who became the first South American to reach global mainstream fame.Alok was battling another cycle of depression which he first experienced at age 10. After embarking on a quest to find meaning in his life, Alok visited the Amazon rainforest to connect with nature and met the Indigenous Yawanawa people. He then visited Africa with the humanitarian group Friends Without Borders, which was life changing.Alok, who didn’t believe in God at the time, partly due to rampant global poverty, had an encounter with a blind, elderly woman so starved that she had tied a rope around her stomach area to feel less hungry.“S...

Canada government mulling release of Nazi collaborator report

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:41:39 GMT

There is a sign of movement from the Canadian government as Jewish groups push the feds to declassify a report from the 1980s examining those who associated with Nazis who came to Canada after World War II.It comes in the wake of the controversy in the House of Commons when a Ukrainian veteran who fought with the Waffen-SS was recognized by the Speaker.Over a week after the incident sparked embarrassing headlines around the world, a statement from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration says it is looking to see if any additional information can be released from the Deschênes Commission report.“What happened in Canada’s House of Commons was unacceptable. It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust and Canadians who fought to liberate Europe from the Nazis, and it was deeply painful for Jewish people, Polish people, Roma people, 2SLGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, racialized people, and the many millions who were t...