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Joe Biden in Lahaina: “I almost lost my wife, my 67 corvette, my cat.”

Italy's presumed next premier, Giorgia Meloni, issued a stark warning to Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday that he risked losing influence in any new government over his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as she asserted a strong pro-NATO, pro-European position about Russia's war in Ukraine. “Italy, with its head high, is part of Europe and the (NATO) Atlantic alliance,” she said. “Whoever doesn't agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not having a government.”

German researchers have found that COVID-19 therapies developed by Eli Lilly (LLY.N) and Regeneron (REGN.O) lose most of their effectiveness when exposed in laboratory tests to the Omicron variant of coronavirus, likely reducing treatment options if the new variant prevails. Two groups of Germany based scientists separately found that protection from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Vir's (VIR.O) antibody cocktail Xevudy held up when exposed to Omicron in lab experiments, but that this was not the case for Lilly's antibodies, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, and the antibodies in Regeneron's Ronapreve drug.

NAVADMIN message lays out policy. In short: Authority taken from CO's and given to Commander Naval Personnel. Navy service members refusing the COVID-19 vaccination, absent a pending or approved exemption, shall be processed for administrative separation. Admin separation or General Discharge under Honorable Conditions unless there are additional disciplinary matters.

TOKYO -- Purchases of PCR tests in China's Hubei Province surged months before the first official reports of a novel coronavirus case there, according to a report from researchers in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. About 67.4 million yuan ($10.5 million at current rates) was spent on PCR tests in Hubei during 2019, nearly double the 2018 total, with the upswing starting in May. The report, released by a research team that includes former intelligence officers, is based on records from a website aggregating information on bids for public sector procurement contracts. The report casts further doubt on China's...

Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett has said that forward Josh Archibald is out indefinitely after having been diagnosed with myocarditis.

President Joe Biden is expected to choose Omarova to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises about 1,200 banks and federal savings associations, as soon as this week, sources told the news agency. Omarova, a Kazakhstan native, currently teaches law at Cornell University Law School. In her academic work, she has argued in favor of policies that would tighten banking regulations across the board and give government a larger role in supervising the financial system, such as restructuring the Federal Reserve. She also has argued the central bank should provide consumer bank accounts.

BEIJING, July 22 (Reuters) - China rejected on Thursday a World Health Organization (WHO) plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which includes the hypothesis it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory, a top health official said. The WHO this month proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in the city of Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities. "We will not accept such an origins-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, disregards common sense and defies science," Zeng Yixin,...

CARLSBAD, CA—After confiscating a LEGO Capitol Building from one of the conspirators of the worst day in our nation's history, January 6, FBI agents uncovered an even more sinister plot, saying the LEGO conspiracy is far worse than they had feared. They've traced the conspiracy all the way to the top, raiding a massive terrorist compound in Carlsbad, California. "This place is terrifying," murmured an FBI agent scoping out the place, which had big letters over the entrance saying "LEGOLAND." According to investigators, they found models of nearly every government building in D.C. throughout the park, models of a giant...

The number of cases on the quarantined Diamond Princess tripled, as the death toll from the virus in China surpassed 600. Japanese officials said on Friday that 61 people had tested positive for the coronavirus on a quarantined cruise ship in Yokohama, a steep increase from the 20 confirmed cases on Thursday. Officials have screened 273 passengers they said were potentially exposed to the virus. The 41 new patients were to be taken off the ship for medical treatment. More than 2,000 passengers on the Diamond Princess ship have been stuck inside their cabins for days as part of a...

The average bottom-quintile household receives $45,389 in government transfers. Private transfers from charitable and family sources provide another $3,313. The average household in the bottom quintile pays $2,709 in taxes, mostly sales, property and excise taxes. The net result is that the average household in the bottom quintile has $50,901 of available resources. The average middle-income household is only 32% better off than the average bottom-quintile households despite earning more than 13 times as much, having 2.5 times as many of prime working-age individuals employed and working more than twice as many hours a week.

An initial agreement between Yemen's southern separatists and the internationally backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, designed to end a power struggle in the country's south, would see the separatists included in a new cabinet, according to a draft of the deal obtained by Al Jazeera. The Saudi-brokered deal includes arrangements for a system of power that involves both Hadi's government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), whose forces have been at loggerheads in Aden for months. The draft agreement, expected to be announced in the coming days, followed weeks of negotiations hosted by Saudi Arabia. Yemen's Information Minister...

Leading US senators who had introduced a bill aimed at imposing sanctions on Turkey over its operation in northeast Syria will temporarily withhold legislative action in order to give diplomatic efforts a chance, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. After talking to President Donald Trump by telephone at midday Tuesday, Graham said senators would slow the drive in the US Senate to pass economic sanctions against Turkey to "give the administration the space".

Gibraltar has released an Iranian oil tanker detained last month despite a last-minute US bid to have the ship seized. The US made an emergency appeal to Gibraltar to keep the Grace 1 in custody but authorities in the British territory announced on Thursday that they were releasing it. The ship’s release after more than a month will raise hopes that Iran may now release the Stena Impero, a British-flagged tanker seized in retaliation by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It was not immediately clear when the Grace 1 would actually set sail from Gibraltar or if the US would try to...

SAN DIEGO — Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, has dismissed all charges against Navy SEAL Lt. Jacob X. Portier, who was set to face trial in September on charges stemming from the high-profile murder case of Special Operator 1st Class Edward R. Gallagher. “Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson today dismissed all charges in the case of Lt. Jacob Portier,” a Navy statement said Thursday. “Richardson took this action in the best interest of justice and the Navy.” Cmdr. Jereal Dorsey, a Navy spokesman, said the decision came from Richardson, not from President Trump, who yesterday...

Attorney David Winslow said his client — a Los Angeles Police Department officer whom he wouldn't name — was struck from behind without a word being spoken Friday night as he fed his son samples of teriyaki chicken in the warehouse store in Corona, southeast of Los Angeles. Winslow told The Associated Press the officer was briefly knocked unconscious and his 1 ½-year-old son also fell to the ground. When the officer regained consciousness, Winslow said, "he believed his life and his son's life was in immediate danger." "He believed he was under attack," Winslow said. "That's when the shooting...