Month: September 2022

Categories
Politics

Choose Grants Trump’s Request for Particular Grasp to Assessment Mar-a-Lago Paperwork

Judge Grants Trump’s Request for Special Master to Review Mar-a-Lago Documents

A federal judge on Monday intervened in an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of sensitive government records, ordering the appointment of an independent arbitrator to review a trove of materials released last month from Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida were confiscated.

In a 24-page ruling, Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida also barred the Justice Department from using the seized materials for “investigative purposes” related to Mr. Trump’s ongoing investigation pending the arbitrator’s work , known as the Special Master, was completed.

The order would effectively bar federal prosecutors from using a key piece of evidence while they continue to investigate whether the former president unlawfully kept national defense documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate or impeded government efforts to get them back.

In her order, issued on the Labor Day holiday, Judge Cannon said she made her decisions “to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity in the exceptional circumstances.” However, their order would not affect a separate review of the documents by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Judge Cannon’s decision gave the Special Master sweeping powers to review materials extracted from Mar-a-Lago, some of which bore markings identifying them as top secret. It allowed anyone eventually appointed to the post to assess the documents not only for those protected by attorney-client privilege, a relatively common measure, but also for those potentially protected by executive privilege, the normally confidential internal Executive branch deliberations protects.

At a hearing on the issue last week, the Justice Department argued that since Mr Trump is a former President and the Department is itself, allowing a special master to conduct an executive privilege review of the seized material would be a radical and legally unfounded move Part of the current executive branch.

But Judge Cannon disagreed with the Justice Department, writing in the order that she was “unconvinced” by the government’s categorical claim that executive privilege did not apply in this context. She added that she felt the department’s position “arguably exaggerated the law” and that it made sense for her to set aside any documents that might be protected by executive privilege if the legal issues in the case are resolved.

“Even if any assertion of executive privilege by plaintiff in this regard ultimately fails, that possibility, even if probable, does not negate a former president’s ability to assert the privilege as a matter of first concern,” she wrote. “Because the eligibility review team did not search for any material that may be subject to executive privileges, further review is required for this additional purpose.”

A Justice Department spokesman did not initially respond to a request for comment, but Department officials last week discussed the possibility of an appeal should the judge rule in Mr Trump’s favour.

Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

Categories
Entertainment

Shakespeare or Bieber? This Canadian Metropolis Attracts Devotees of Each

Shakespeare or Bieber? This Canadian City Draws Devotees of Both

STRATFORD, Ontario – It’s a small town that practically screams “Shakespeare!”

Majestic white swans swim in the Avon River not far from Falstaff Street and Anne Hathaway Park, named after the playwright’s wife. Some residents live in Romeo Ward while young students attend Hamlet Primary School. And the school’s eponymous play is often performed as part of a renowned theater festival that draws legions of Shakespeare fans from around the world from April to October.

Steeped in references and reverence for the bard, Stratford, Ontario has counted on its association with Shakespeare for decades to reliably bring millions of tourist dollars to a city that would otherwise have little appeal to travelers.

“My dad always said we had a world-class theater housed in a farming community,” said Frank Herr, second-generation owner of a boat tour and rental business along the Avon River.

Then, about a dozen years ago, a new and usually much younger breed of culture enthusiast emerged on Stratford’s streets: Beliebers, or fans of local talent, pop star Justin Bieber.

Local residents don’t have much trouble telling the two types of visitors apart. A hint: look at what they are wearing.

“You have the Shakespeare books in your hands,” said Herr Herr of those who are here for the love of the theatre. “They’re just serious people.”

Beliebers, on the other hand, always have their smartphones handy to excitedly document the pop star’s otherwise boring sights: the location of his first date, the local radio station that first played his music, the diner where he was rumored to be eating.

Unlike Shakespeare – who never set foot in this town, named after his birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon, England – Mr. Bieber has real and deep connections: he grew up here and is familiar to many.

“I know Justin,” said Mr. Herr. “He used to skateboard on the cenotaph, and I used to kick him off the cenotaph,” he added, referring to a World War I memorial in the gardens next to Lake Victoria.

Diane Dale, Mr. Bieber’s maternal grandmother, and her husband Bruce lived a 10-minute drive from downtown Stratford, where the young singer, now 28, could often be found busking and collecting on the steps of the Avon Theater under her supervision up to $200 a day, she said in a recent interview.

Those moves became something of a pilgrimage for Mr. Bieber’s fans, particularly those vying to become “One Less Lonely Girl” during his teen-pop dreamboat era.

Another popular stop on the pilgrimage was Mrs. Dale’s front door. After fans rang her doorbell, she reassured them that her grandson wasn’t home, but that didn’t stop her from snapping selfies in front of the red-brick bungalow.

“Justin said if you don’t move, we won’t come see you anymore,” recalled Ms. Dale, a retired seamstress at a now-closed auto factory in town. In the meantime she has moved.

Stratford businesses that benefited from this second group of tourists began to speak of the “Bieber Effect,” a play on the “Bilbao Effect,” in reference to the Spanish city revitalized by a museum.

But one of the problems with pop fame is that it can be fickle. As fans have aged from their youthful infatuation with the musician, the “Bieber fever” has cooled and the number of pilgrims has dwindled.

The problems that have long plagued other Canadian cities, such as soaring home prices and drug addiction, are peeking more frequently through the picturesque veneer of Stratford, a city of about 33,000 surrounded by sprawling cornfields in southwestern Ontario’s farmland region.

But more than 400 years after his death, Shakespeare’s appeal is still fully intact.

The theater festival, which attracts over 500,000 visitors in a typical year and employs around 1,000 people, features Shakespearean classics, Broadway-style musicals and modern plays in its repertoire.

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the festival returned to its roots, holding a limited number of outdoor shows under canopies, as it did for the first four seasons beginning in 1953. In 1957 the Festival Theater building was inaugurated with a summer production of Hamlet, starring Canadian actor Christopher Plummer in the title role.

In this year’s production, a woman, Amaka Umeh, plays the first black actress to play Hamlet at the festival.

While it’s unknown how popular Mr. Bieber will be four centuries from now, the appeal of someone who’s sold over 100 million digital singles in the United States alone doesn’t fade overnight.

And Stratford has taken steps to permanently commemorate his youth here.

Mr. Bieber’s grandparents had kept boxes of his belongings, including talent show sheet music and a drum set, which were paid for by the community in a crowdfunding effort – until a local museum offered them a chance to display the items.

“It changed the museum forever in so many ways,” said John Kastner, general manager of the Stratford Perth Museum.

After telling the local newspaper that the museum was opening an exhibition called Justin Bieber: Steps to Stardom in February 2018, Mr Kastner said he was inundated with calls from international media.

“We wanted to make a room, like a 10 by 10 room,” said Mr. Kastner. He called his curator. “I said, ‘We have a problem.'”

They canceled the agricultural show planned for the adjacent space, which proved helpful in accommodating the 18,000 visitors in the first year of the Bieber show, a huge increase in attendance from the 850 who visited the museum in 2013.

The Bieber show, which will be on at least until next year, has generated thousands of dollars in merchandise purchases, Mr. Kastner said, giving the modest museum a welcome financial cushion.

Mr. Bieber has also made a handful of visits, chalked his name on the guest board and donated some recent memorabilia, including his wedding invitation and reception menu, which featured a dish called “Grandma Diane’s Bolognese.”

But even before the Beliebers came to town, organized school visits brought young people to Stratford in busloads, with 50,000 to 100,000 students arriving each year from across the United States and Canada.

Barring the pandemic border closures, James Pakala and his wife Denise, both retired seminary librarians in St. Louis, have come to Stratford for about a week every year since the early 1990s. Thirty years earlier, Ms. Pakala traveled to Stratford with her high school English literature class from Ithaca, NY, and the trip has become a tradition ever since.

“I love Shakespeare and I love Molière too,” said Mr Pakala, 78, who was studying his program ahead of a recent production of Molière’s comedy The Miser outside the Festspielhaus.

Other guests enjoy the ease of getting around Stratford. Traffic is fairly light, there is ample parking and most major attractions are a short walk from each other, with lovely views of the rippling river and picturesque gardens.

“It’s easy to go to theaters here,” said Michael Walker, a retired banker from Newport Beach, California, who visits with friends every year. “It’s not like New York, where it’s arduous, and the quality of the theater here is better than Los Angeles or Chicago, in my opinion.”

The Here for Now Theatre, an independent non-profit that opened during the pandemic and plays to a maximum of 50 people, has a “symbiotic relationship” with the festival, said its artistic director Fiona Mongillo, who compared the scale of their activities to a Fiat for the Festival freight train.

“It’s an interesting moment for Stratford because I think it’s growing and changing in a really beautiful way,” Ms. Mongillo said, noting the increasing diversity as Canadians have moved from neighboring cities to a previous city, she added , “very, very white.”

Longtime residents of Stratford, like Madeleine McCormick, a retired corrections officer, said it can sometimes seem like residents’ concerns are being sidelined in favor of tourists.

Nonetheless, Ms McCormick acknowledged the assets of the vibrant community of artists and creative people that captivated her musician husband.

“It’s a strange place,” she said. “Because of the theatre, there will never be a place like that again.”

And Mr. Bieber.

Categories
Business

Markets Slip as Britain Will get a New Prime Minister and Vitality Worries Develop

Markets Slip as Britain Gets a New Prime Minister and Energy Worries Grow

If the financial markets are sending a message to Britain’s new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, it is a worrying one.

Ms Truss, who was elected the next prime minister by Conservative Party members on Monday, faces enormous economic challenges as energy prices soar and the cost of living becomes increasingly unaffordable. As the outlook dims and a recession becomes more likely, the pound is at its lowest since March 2020 and nearing its lowest since 1985 against the dollar.

Elsewhere in Europe, markets started the week on shaky ground after Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Friday it would not resume natural gas flows between Russia and Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as expected on Saturday. Natural gas prices soared and stocks plummeted.

Last month, the British pound fell 4.5 percent against the US dollar, its worst month in nearly six years, as the economic outlook worsened. Households have been told to expect their energy bills to rise by 80 percent in October and industry groups have warned there could be large-scale shutdowns by companies unable to afford the energy bills. The Bank of England has hiked rates by the most in 27 years, and traders are betting rates would need to rise much more to combat inflation, which has hit 10.1 percent despite forecasts of a recession become more frequent.

The pound was little changed at around $1.15 on Monday when Ms. Truss was announced as the new prime minister with a widely anticipated result. It has been steadily declining for over a year (since hitting $1.42 in June 2021) and is less than 1 percent from its lowest level since 1985. Yields on UK government debt, a measure of the cost of borrowing, have also skyrocketed. The 10-year bond yield approached 3 percent, its highest since early 2014.

Decision not to restart Russian gas flows through Nord Stream 1 Concerns have increased about Europe’s winter energy supply and how much consumption may need to be curtailed to avoid blackouts.

Dutch benchmark natural gas futures rose as much as 35 percent Monday morning and 24 percent late in the morning.

The euro was 0.3 percent weaker against the dollar on Monday, falling to 99 US cents on Monday. It fell below parity for the first time in two decades in mid-July and stayed around that level. The common currency has fallen nearly 13 percent against the dollar this year as an energy crisis loomed and the dollar appreciated as the Federal Reserve sharply hiked interest rates in the United States.

On Monday, the leading German index DAX fell by 2.7 percent and the Euro Stoxx 600 by 1.2 percent. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent.

In the United States, stock markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday.

Categories
Health

The Curious Gap in My Head

The Curious Hole in My Head

Ich raste mitten in der Nacht in einem New Yorker Krankenhaus in die Welt – eine überstürzte Geburt, wie die Ärzte es nannten.

In meinen ersten Lebensstunden, nach sechs Atemaussetzern, brachten mich die Ärzte eilig auf die Neugeborenen-Intensivstation. Ein Assistenzarzt steckte mir seinen kleinen Finger in den Mund, um den neugeborenen Saugreflex zu testen. Ich habe nicht fest genug gesaugt. Also rollten sie mein rosa, 7-Pfund-11-Unzen Körper in einen Gehirnscanner.

Und siehe da, da war ein riesiges Loch auf der linken Seite, direkt über meinem Ohr. Mir fehlte der linke Schläfenlappen, eine Region des Gehirns, die an einer Vielzahl von Verhaltensweisen beteiligt ist, von der Erinnerung bis zum Wiedererkennen Emotionen und gelten als besonders wichtig für die Sprache.

Meine Mutter, erschöpft von der Arbeit, erinnert sich, dass sie nach Sonnenaufgang aufgewacht ist zu einem Neurologen, Kinderarzt und einer Hebamme, die am Fußende ihres Bettes stehen. Sie erklärten mir, dass mein Gehirn in ihrer Gebärmutter geblutet hatte, ein Zustand, der als perinataler Schlaganfall bezeichnet wird.

Sie sagten ihr, ich würde nie sprechen und müsste in eine Institution gebracht werden. Die Neurologin hob ihre Arme an ihre Brust und verdrehte ihre Handgelenke, um die körperliche Behinderung zu veranschaulichen, die ich wahrscheinlich entwickeln würde.

In jenen frühen Tagen meines Lebens rangen meine Eltern die Hände und fragten sich, wie mein und ihr Leben aussehen würden. Begierig darauf, Antworten zu finden, schrieben sie mich in ein Forschungsprojekt an der New York University ein, das die Auswirkungen von perinatalen Schlaganfällen auf die Entwicklung verfolgte.

Aber Monat für Monat überraschte ich die Experten und traf alle typischen Meilensteine ​​von Kindern in meinem Alter. Ich schrieb mich an regulären Schulen ein, zeichnete mich im Sport und in der Wissenschaft aus. Die Sprachkenntnisse, die den Ärzten bei meiner Geburt am meisten am Herzen lagen – Sprechen, Lesen und Schreiben – entpuppten sich als meine beruflichen Leidenschaften.

Mein Fall ist sehr ungewöhnlich, aber nicht einzigartig. Das schätzen Wissenschaftler Tausende von Menschen leben wie ich ein normales Leben, obwohl große Teile unseres Gehirns fehlen. Unsere unzähligen Neuronennetzwerke haben es geschafft, sich im Laufe der Zeit neu zu verdrahten. Aber wie?

Meine Kindheitserinnerungen sind gefüllt mit Forschern, die mir mit Stiften und Klemmbrettern folgen. Mein Gehirn wurde mehrmals im Jahr gescannt und ich wurde mit verschiedenen Rätseln, Wortsuchen und Bilderkennungstests beauftragt. Am Ende jedes Testtages gaben mir die Forscher einen Aufkleber, den ich in einer Blechdose neben meinem Bett aufbewahrte.

Als ich etwa 9 Jahre alt war, wollten Forscher sehen, wie sich mein Gehirn verhält, wenn ich erschöpft bin. Manchmal blieb ich mit meiner Mutter die ganze Nacht wach, aß chinesisches Essen und sah mir Filme von Katharine Hepburn und Spencer Tracy an. Am nächsten Tag stolperte ich halbwach in die Klinik, und Wissenschaftler klebten mir Elektroden auf die Kopfhaut. Als lange Drähte wie Medusas Schlangen von meinem Kopf fielen, durfte ich endlich einschlafen, glücklicherweise nicht wissend, dass die Forscher nach Anomalien in meinen Gehirnwellen suchten.

Im Laufe der Jahre stellten die Wissenschaftler fest, dass ich nicht wie die anderen Kinder in der Studie war: Ich hatte keine Defizite, die ich im Laufe der Zeit verfolgen konnte. Als ich ungefähr 15 Jahre alt war, trafen mein Vater und ich uns im vollgestopften Manhattaner Büro von Dr. Ruth Nass, der pädiatrischen Neurologin, die die Forschung leitete. Sie fragte mich, ob ich tatsächlich einen perinatalen Schlaganfall gehabt hätte. Jedenfalls sagte sie offen, dass mein Gehirn so anders sei als das der anderen, dass ich nicht mehr im Arbeitszimmer sein könne.

Ich hatte nichts dagegen. Ich hatte andere Dinge in meinem Leben, wie den Beginn der High School, Cross-Country-Training und Schwärmereien. Aber ich hatte auch genug über Neurowissenschaften gelernt, um mich völlig in das Thema einzumischen. Als ich 17 war und in mein letztes Jahr an der High School kam, Ich schrieb Dr. Nass an und fragte, ob ich ein Praktikum in ihrem Labor machen könnte. Sie stimmte bereitwillig zu.

Eines Tages im Labor fragte ich sie, ob sie mir meine Studienunterlagen zeigen könne. Wir betraten einen Raum, der mit Stapeln von Plastikeimern gefüllt war, jeder randvoll mit Ordnern und losen Papieren. Sie schnappte sich eine Mappe und las sie leise. Dann blickte sie über ein Stück Papier und sagte: „Du warst die schlechteste Teilnehmerin, weil es dir vollkommen gut ging! Du hast alle meine Daten weggeworfen.“

Dr. Nass, die 2019 verstarb, und ihre Kollegen veröffentlichten viele Studien zu perinatalen Schlaganfällen. In einer Studie aus dem Jahr 2012 fanden sie beispielsweise heraus, dass Babys, die an diesen Schlaganfällen litten, im Vergleich zur allgemeinen pädiatrischen Bevölkerung ein höheres Risiko für Aufmerksamkeits- und Verhaltensprobleme hatten. Viele dieser Kinder, die von 1983 bis 2006 aus Südkalifornien und New York City rekrutiert wurden, litten an Krampfanfällen und Muskelschwäche auf einer Seite ihres Körpers. Die meisten hatten auch beschädigte oder fehlende Bereiche, bekannt als Läsionen, in ihrer linken Hemisphäre, wie ich. Ich nehme an, dass einer dieser Datenpunkte meiner war.

Ich ging aufs College und studierte Neurowissenschaften. Nach meinem Abschluss im Jahr 2015 habe ich zwei Jahre in einem Labor gearbeitet und Gehirnerschütterungen untersucht. Ich verbrachte Stunden im Magnetresonanzraum und beobachtete, wie die Gehirne anderer Leute vor mir auf einem Computerbildschirm erschienen.

Aber ich habe nie viel über mein eigenes Gehirn nachgedacht, bis ich in diesem Frühjahr im Wired-Magazin auf eine Geschichte über eine Frau gestoßen bin, die genau wie ich ist: erstaunlich normal, abgesehen von einem fehlenden Schläfenlappen.

Seit mehr als einem Jahrhundert gilt die linke Gehirnhälfte als Zentrum der Sprachproduktion und des Sprachverständnisses.

Diese Idee wurde erstmals 1836 von Dr. Marc Dax vorgeschlagen, einem Arzt, der beobachtete, dass Patienten mit Verletzungen der linken Gehirnhälfte nicht mehr richtig sprechen konnten. 25 Jahre später beobachtete Dr. Pierre Paul Broca einen jungen Mann, der die Fähigkeit zu sprechen verloren hatte und nur noch eine Silbe aussprechen konnte: „Tan“. Eine Gehirnbiopsie nach dem Tod des Patienten ergab eine große Läsion im vorderen Teil der linken Hemisphäre, die heute als Broca-Areal bekannt ist.

In den frühen 1870er Jahren sah Dr. Carl Wernicke, ein Neurologe, mehrere Patienten, die fließend sprechen konnten, aber ihre Äußerungen machten wenig Sinn. Eine dieser Patientinnen hatte einen Schlaganfall im hinteren linken Schläfenlappen, und Dr. Wernicke kam zu dem Schluss, dass dieser Bereich des Gehirns – jetzt Wernicke-Areal genannt – neben dem Broca-Areal als zweites Sprachzentrum dienen muss.

Aber andere Neurowissenschaftler haben argumentiert, dass die Sprachverarbeitung noch umfassender ist und nicht auf bestimmte Gehirnregionen beschränkt ist.

„Ich glaube, dass die Sprache im Gehirn über das gesamte Gehirn verteilt ist“, sagte Jeremy Skipper, der Leiter des Language, Action and Brain Lab am University College London (und mein ehemaliger College-Psychologieprofessor).

Studien haben gezeigt, dass geschriebene Wörter den Teil des Gehirns aktivieren können, der mit der Bedeutung des Wortes verbunden ist. Zum Beispiel aktiviert das Wort „Telefon“ einen Bereich, der mit dem Gehör zusammenhängt, „Kick“ löst eine Region aus, die an der Bewegung der Beine beteiligt ist, und „Knoblauch“ aktiviert einen Teil, der Gerüche verarbeitet.

Die Bereiche des Gehirns, die traditionell der Sprache zugeschrieben werden, haben viele andere Funktionen, sagte Dr. Skipper. „Es kommt nur darauf an, mit welchen anderen Teilen des Gehirns sie zu welcher Zeit und in welchem ​​Kontext sprechen.“

Der Wired-Artikel beschrieb eine anonyme Frau aus Connecticut, die keine Ahnung hatte, dass ihr ein linker Schläfenlappen fehlte, bis sie sich als Erwachsene einem unabhängigen Gehirnscan unterzog. In den letzten Jahren, heißt es in dem Artikel, war sie Teil eines Forschungsprojekts unter der Leitung von Evelina Fedorenko, einer kognitiven Neurowissenschaftlerin am Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Im April schrieb ich Dr. Fedorenko eine E-Mail ihr von meinem fehlenden linken Schläfenlappen zu erzählen und ihr anzubieten, an ihrer Forschung teilzunehmen. Sie antwortete viereinhalb Stunden später, und bald buchte ich ein Flugticket von meinem Zuhause im ländlichen Colorado nach Boston.

Derzeit gibt es acht Teilnehmer, mich eingeschlossen, an Dr. Fedorenkos „Interessant Brain Project“, sagte sie mir. Ich habe sie nicht getroffen, aber vier von uns hatten vermutlich perinatale Schlaganfälle, die zu Schäden an unserer linken Hemisphäre führten. Zwei Teilnehmer haben gutartige Zysten in ihrer rechten oder linken Hemisphäre, einer hatte einen Schlaganfall in der rechten Hemisphäre und einem wurde wegen eines Tumors Hirngewebe aus der linken Hemisphäre entfernt.

„Das Gehirn hat eine unglaubliche Neuroplastizität“, sagte Hope Kean, eine Doktorandin in Dr. Fedorenkos Labor, die im Rahmen ihrer Dissertation die Interesting Brain-Studie durchführt.

Es scheint, dass sich Netzwerke im Gehirn auf eine bestimmte Weise anordnen, aber wenn Sie als Baby wichtige Gehirnregionen verlieren – wenn das Gehirn noch sehr plastisch ist – können diese Netzwerke umgeleitet werden, sagte Frau Kean.

Ich kam an einem heißen Julitag in Dr. Fedorenkos Labor in Cambridge an. Ich lag auf einem Bett, das in die enge Röhre des MRT-Geräts geschoben wurde, mit einem käfigähnlichen Gerät über meinem Kopf. Ms. Kean befestigte einen Spiegel an der Kopfbedeckung, damit ich einen Bildschirm auf der Rückseite des Scanners sehen konnte. Als die Maschine anfing, ihre hämmernden, dröhnenden Geräusche von sich zu geben, erinnerte ich mich an all die Male, als ich als Kind drinnen eingenickt war, eingelullt von ihren donnernden Akkorden.

Auf dem Bildschirm blitzten schnell Wörter auf, und eine Stimme las sie laut vor und bildete zufällige Sätze wie: „Auf Teenager-Pumps findet sich nur die geringste Andeutung eines Absatzes.“ Dann wechselten die Wörter zu einer willkürlichen Ansammlung von Buchstaben und erzeugten unverständliche Geräusche.

Nachdem der Scan abgeschlossen war, drängten sich die Forscher und ich um einen Computerbildschirm, wo ich zum ersten Mal eine Scheibe meines Gehirns sah. Ich starrte ungläubig, verblüfft, dass meine neuronalen Leitungen um dieses große, längliche Loch, wo mein Schläfenlappen hätte sein sollen, umgeleitet worden sein könnten, in den Raum hinter meiner linken Schläfe und Augenhöhle.

Im Gehirn einer typischen Person würden die Sätze, die ich im Scanner hörte und las, den linken Schläfen- und Frontallappen stark aktivieren, während die Unsinnsgeräusche dies nicht tun würden.

Die Studien der Forscher fanden heraus, dass sich das Gehirn der Patientin aus Connecticut durch Seitenwechsel angepasst hatte: Bei ihr aktivierten diese Sätze laut einer in der Zeitschrift Neuropsychologia veröffentlichten Fallstudie die rechten Schläfen- und Stirnlappen.

Mein Gehirn überraschte jedoch wieder einmal alle.

Eine vorläufige Analyse der Scans zeigte, dass ich auch ohne linken Schläfenlappen Sätze mit meiner linken Hemisphäre verarbeite.

„Ich hatte gedacht, dass jede große frühe Läsion der linken Hemisphäre zur Migration des Sprachsystems in die rechte Hemisphäre führt!“ sagte Dr. Fedorenko. „Aber so ist Wissenschaft cool. Überraschungen bedeuten oft coole Entdeckungen.“

Ein möglicher Grund für diese Entdeckung ist laut Dr. Fedorenko, dass sich meine Läsion hauptsächlich in der Vorderseite meiner linken Hemisphäre befindet und genug gesundes Gewebe auf der Rückseite übrig bleibt, damit das Sprachsystem Wurzeln schlagen kann.

In den nächsten Jahren werde ich für zusätzliche Scans und Tests ins Labor zurückfliegen, und Dr. Fedorenko hofft, noch mehr Menschen mit ungewöhnlichen Gehirnen für die Teilnahme an dieser Studie gewinnen zu können.

Ich denke immer noch an die Studie, in der ich als kleines Kind war, und an all die anderen Kinder, deren perinatale Schlaganfälle viele von ihnen schwer behindert hatten. Aus irgendeinem mysteriösen Grund hat sich mein Gehirn um seinen fehlenden Lappen herum entwickelt, während ihres damit zu kämpfen hatte. Warum wurde ich nicht mit den Entwicklungs- und kognitiven Problemen geboren, und sie waren es? Warum hat sich meine linke Seite neu verdrahtet, um mir die Silben, Wörter und Sätze zu geben, die mein Leben so bereichert haben?

Es sind diese Fragen, die mich dankbar machen, an dieser Studie beteiligt gewesen zu sein – und erneut Forschungsteilnehmerin zu sein.

Categories
World News

Singapore, Thailand are weak to U.S. recession, economists say

Southeast Asia is looking

Singapore is the most vulnerable and will be the first to be hit in Southeast Asia if the US goes into recession, says Maybank’s Chua Hak Bin.

Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Asia won’t get off scot-free if the US falls into recession, but some countries in Southeast Asia will be hit harder than others, economists warn.

The tug-of-war between inflation and recession in the United States continues as the Federal Reserve maintains its hawkish stance on rate hikes.

The US has already reported back-to-back quarters of negative growth in the first two quarters of 2022 – in what some see as a “technical” recession. Still, there is little consensus on when a full-blown recession might strike.

Economists told CNBC that Singapore and Thailand will most likely be hit first if the US slips into recession.

Singapore

Singapore is “more vulnerable” to a US recession than its regional peers because it is “very, very dependent,” said Chua Hak Bin, a senior economist at Maybank.

“I guess [it] Singapore will be first,” he said when asked which economies in Southeast Asia will be hit first if the US falls into recession. The island nation is likely to be first because of its export dependency and its small and open economy, Chua said.

Selina Ling, chief economist at OCBC Bank, agreed with this analysis.

“At first glance, I would rather assume the more open and trade-dependent Asian economies [Singapore]Taiwan and South Korea and maybe Thailand would be the usual suspects,” she said.

1. Connected

The country’s GDP growth has “historically been more closely correlated with US business cycles” due to its export-oriented economy, Maybank said in a late August report.

Singapore does not have a large domestic market and relies heavily on trade services for economic growth, Chua said. These include shipping activities and cargo operations.

The country’s trade-to-GDP ratio for 2021 was 338%, according to the World Bank. The trade to GDP ratio is an indicator of how open an economy is to international trade.

Singapore’s “correlation and dependence on foreign demand is very high,” Chua said. If the US slips into recession, this “dependency and causality” will hit the more export-oriented economies, he added.

Singapore is strongly connected to the rest of the world and a “shockwave” in any one country will definitely have a ripple effect across the city, Irvin Seah, senior economist at DBS Group Research, told CNBC.

Still, he doesn’t expect Singapore to fall into recession this year or next.

The Maybank report states that if the US slides into recession, the downturn will be “shallow rather than deep.”

However, Chua said the US could potentially face a “prolonged” recession and whether or not Singapore is also headed for a protracted recession will depend on China’s Covid reopening as China is the city-state’s biggest trading partner.

2. Export-oriented economy

Singapore is a big exporter of electrical machinery and equipment, but output in its electronics cluster fell 6.4% yoy in July, data from the Economic Development Board showed.

Production in the semiconductor sector fell 4.1%, while other electronic module and component segments shrank 19.7% on “lower export orders from China and China.” [South] Korea,” said the EDB, a government agency of Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“China is the biggest export market for many ASEAN countries… But exports to China have been terrible,” Chua said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Because Singapore is so dependent on exports, [it] will feel it.”

3. Tourism

Seah, the economist at DBS, said he “doesn’t rule out the possibility” that Singapore will see at least a quarter of negative quarter-on-quarter growth. However, economic conditions for the country are normalizing, he added.

“We are definitely much stronger today than we were during the global financial crisis,” he said.

Thailand

Thailand will also be among the first to be hit if the US slips into recession, economists predicted, speaking to CNBC.

1. Tourism

The country relies heavily on tourism for its economic growth. Spending on tourists accounted for about 11% of Thailand’s GDP in 2019 before the pandemic. The country welcomed nearly 40 million visitors that year and generated more than $60 billion in revenue, according to the World Bank.

Only about 428,000 foreign tourists arrived in 2021 and the economy grew by just 1.5% – one of the slowest in Southeast Asia, according to Reuters.

Thailand could be next to fall into recession after Singapore, Chua said. However, a “wild card” will be the timing of China’s reopening – which could determine whether Thailand’s economy is “back to full swing,” he added.

Thailand's lifting of Covid curbs will boost travel and service industries: hospitality businesses

Chinese tourists have not returned to the Southeast Asian country, and that has left Thailand’s economy in “an even more precarious state,” said Seah of DBS Bank.

“As long as Chinese tourists don’t return, Thailand will keep fighting. Growth was weak, inflation high, [and] The Thai baht is under pressure.”

The Thai baht is currently hovering around 36 baht per US dollar, down 20% from three years ago before the pandemic.

2. Inflationary pressures

Thailand’s inflation rate hit a 14-year high of 7.66% in June, according to Refinitiv data.

The Bank of Thailand has only hiked interest rates once since 2018.

“Headline inflation is very high in Thailand, but core inflation is not that high, correlation is not that high. Of course, growth has been much weaker, so they see no urgency to tighten that aggressively,” Maybank’s Chua said.

He pointed out that Indonesia and the Philippines would likely be less affected by a possible US recession due to their “domestically focused economies”.

“Indonesia and the Philippines were better insulated from the slowdown in foreign demand and the US recession, with both economies continuing to expand even in 2008-09 during the global financial crisis,” the Maybank report said.

According to World Bank data, GDP growth in Indonesia and the Philippines was higher than in Singapore and Thailand during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

– CNBC’s Abigail Ng and Weizhen Tan contributed to this report.

Categories
Politics

Sen. Graham says he was stating the plain with Trump riots declare

Senator Lindsey Graham says his intention was

US Senator Lindsey Graham speaks at a press conference at the US Capitol on August 05, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

US Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday defended allegations that there would be “riots in the streets” if former President Donald Trump was prosecuted for misusing classified information, and said he condemned the violence used during the Capitol riots was seen last year.

“I was trying to state the obvious,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally, told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy.

“Here’s what I said, The raid continues [former] The home of President Trump, the likely candidate for 2024, better bears fruit here,” he added.

“Our country, the people on our side believe that there are no rules in the justice system regarding Trump. [it’s a case of] ‘Get him any way you get him,’ so I said if it’s like Clinton and he’s prosecuted, it’s going to be one of the most disruptive events in America,” Graham said.

Trump and his allies have argued that the FBI, which is investigating Trump for possible violations of the law related to espionage and obstruction of justice, treats him differently than Hillary Clinton, who is the subject of an FBI investigation into her use of a private email server, but was not prosecuted. Trump’s critics argue that the two cases are not comparable.

Graham said he opposed the violence seen in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, saying “all these people who desecrated the Capitol should go to jail,” but said that any perceived injustice against Trump would have consequences.

“I don’t want to apologize to the January 6 folks because that seems to reinforce the narrative that this is okay. I said something I really believe in – if he does what she did with classified information and he’s prosecuted and she didn’t do it, that would create a problem.”

Graham said last week there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump were prosecuted for misusing classified information.

“I will say this, if there is an indictment against Donald Trump for misappropriating classified information after the Clinton debacle … there will be riots in the streets,” said Graham Trey Gowdy, a former Fox News Republican congressman.

Trump ‘was a consistent president’

Trump is under investigation and at risk of being charged for his handling of classified White House records he brought to his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Last week, the release of a heavily redacted affidavit showed how concerns about illegal activity and obstruction of justice led to an FBI raid at Trump’s resort in July.

Graham acknowledged that he believes in “the responsible use of classified information” but reiterated that “mishandling of classified information is really bad, but we can’t have a system where one person is prosecuted and the other isn’t.” .

When asked if Trump is the best person to represent the Republican Party in 2024, Graham said, “I think he might be.”

“Whether you like Trump or not, he’s been a consistent president … I think a strong American president, unpredictable, is a good thing as long as you keep him within bounds. His problem is personal, his policies have stood the test of time, but has he exhausted the American people in terms of his personality? The time will tell. But I’m saying this, if there’s a political debate after the Biden presidency in 2024, I think his chances are good. If it’s a personality contest, he’s going to get in trouble.”

Graham said he talks to Trump “all the time” and the former president still thinks he’s been “cheated.” Graham said he voted to confirm the 2020 election and that Biden is the legitimate president.

Trump “really believes the system has been rigged against him, and I said, ‘Mr. President, I’m not trying to tell you to change your beliefs. I’m trying to tell you that you have no chance of winning in 2020 unless you have a pretty good chance of winning 2024 if you want to,'” Graham said, noting that he told Trump when he made a comeback celebrates, “it will be one of the greatest political comebacks in American history”.

Speech and Debate Clause

A federal judge on Thursday denied Graham’s recent attempt to challenge a subpoena for his testimony before a special Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election.

However, the judge limited the scope of the subpoena by ordering that Graham not be questioned about phone calls he made with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his associates in the weeks following the November 2020 election between Trump and President Joe Biden Has.

It follows continued offers by Graham to avoid testifying on the grounds that his position as legislature grants him immunity under the US Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.

Graham reiterated his position on Saturday, saying: “I did not start this debate. You have a prosecutor who has decided to investigate a national election and to call anyone and everyone connected to the role he played in the election United States Senator, in our Constitution we have a clause of immunity from speech or debates so we can’t be dragged into courts across the country every time we do something that someone doesn’t like.”

“I think the court will recognize that my activities as a United States Senator were covered by the speech and debate clause that the district attorney’s desire to bring me to Georgia exceeds the constitution.”

Categories
Business

EV manufacturing could shrink U.S. Midwest auto elements commerce

EV manufacturing may shrink U.S. Midwest auto parts trade

The race to build EVs in the US is heating up as new rounds of investment pour out of Washington. The workers in the former center of the auto industry fear being left behind.

“If we look closely at what’s going on at the factory, it won’t be fewer workers,” Keith Cooley, former Michigan Department of Labor chief, told CNBC. “Different people will build the cars.”

Researchers believe modern factory jobs may require more education and be less available than in the past. They estimate that electric vehicles could require 30% less manufacturing labor compared to conventional cars. “The lines that route oil or gas around an internal combustion engine won’t be there,” Cooley said.

That change could hit auto parts suppliers, many of whom are concentrated near Midwestern cities like Kokomo, Indiana; Lima, Ohio; and Detroit, Michigan.

“Auto companies in some of these places actually make up a decent chunk of tax revenue, and they employ a lot of people in the surrounding community,” Sanya Carley, a professor at Indiana University and a collaborator on the Industrial Heartland study, told CNBC. “So the fate of these companies is very closely linked to the fate of the communities.”

Washington leaders are hoping that two key pieces of legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in August, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, will provide a bridge to that future. These laws grant billions of dollars in incentives to clean energy companies.

With funding in the pipeline, automakers are now wondering how quickly demand for electric vehicles will materialize. Electric vehicles will account for 9% of global car sales in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.

Watch them Video to learn more about how the electric vehicle revolution will impact the economies of Midwestern states.

Categories
Entertainment

Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich: A Marriage Constructed on Monsters

Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich: A Marriage Built on Monsters

Filmmaker Paul WS Anderson has directed Milla Jovovich in no fewer than four films in the apocalyptic Resident Evil franchise and has written two more in which she starred. He also directed Monster Hunter (2020) and a 2011 version of The Three Musketeers.

But what sounds like a series of genre nightmares is actually a dream arrangement: Anderson and Jovovich are married and have three children. A shared love of visual storytelling — often in the form of Jovovich’s slaying of monsters in Anderson’s post-industrial wasteland — has fueled them throughout a roughly 20-year collaboration that began with Resident Evil (2002), a video game adaptation they both had played. (A separate Resident Evil series is now available on Netflix.)

On a recent video call, I spoke to the happy couple about their partnership: Jovovich, 46, from Los Angeles, who recently completed Breathe, a dystopian thriller; Anderson, 57, from Kraków, Poland, where he is in pre-production on her next project, In the Lost Lands, based on a short story by George RR Martin. The family business continues with their daughter Ever Anderson appearing as Wendy in David Lowery’s upcoming Peter Pan & Wendy. This interview has been abridged and edited.

How did you meet each other?

PAUL WS ANDERSON We went to Pinewood Studios [outside London] to start production on Event Horizon and they ripped off these really cool looking sets for The Fifth Element. [starring Jovovich] that had just finished shooting. Our paths almost crossed there. And then we were at a premiere together, apart.

JOVOVICH MILE A premiere?

ANDERSON Yes! A Drew Barrymore film. “Unkissed.”

JOVOVICH I can’t imagine you watching a rom-com like this! This is hilarious.

ANDERSON It obviously attracted me for another reason, because you were there. Then I officially met Milla for the first time in 2000, just before we made Resident Evil. She was sitting on the steps in front of my office. I thought she was the coolest woman in the world. And I had just seen this really cool truck parked on the street outside – and it was her truck.

What was it like making notes on your first film together?

JOVOVICH Oh my god it was a disaster. I had read for a specific version of the film and I got the new rewrite the night before I had to go to Berlin [to shoot]. Paul pretty much wrote me out of the movie. I was the damsel in distress who kept saving Michelle Rodriguez—the “Look out! Behind you!” Girl. So when I got to the hotel, Paul’s very sweet producing partner was there with flowers, and I took the flowers and said, “I want to see Paul in my room within an hour. There are no script readings in the mornings!” Then I quickly got changed, put on my makeup, put on a really low-cut top and got together for some script editing. [Laughs] He said, “What’s the problem?” I said, “Okay, let’s get started: Page 1!”

Do you even work together now to write the stories?

JOVOVICH Paul is the writer, I’m just asking questions and trying to understand where my character fits. He does the heavy lifting and I come in and occasionally bring a kink to the work.

ANDERSON But it’s a hugely important part of the process, and Milla is really good at the script. I remember “Resident Evil: Afterlife” [2010], I had written the screenplay and Milla said: “There’s just something missing. It needs a characteristic action scene where I’m doing something, some kind of dogfight. And I had a dream last night: I jumped down an elevator shaft.” And I was like, oh my god, that’s a great idea. I went away and wrote a big rewrite. And Resident Evil: Afterlife starts off with this needle diving sequence, where it’s set in this underground skyscraper. She was right!

What do you think are each other’s strengths when it comes to filming action?

JOVOVICH Paul is the Action Master. It made a lot of sense when I found out he was the jailer [as a kid] because it takes that imagination to guide five nerds playing Dungeons & Dragons for 18 hours. And he still does it with our kids. It is so much fun. I’ve always been fascinated by the way Paul’s mind works because you’re the nicest guy but you have these horrific, disgusting visions and fantasies in your head.

ANDERSON Monsters from the ID!

JOVOVICH Who knows what would have happened if you couldn’t take it out in your films? You would have this conversation from prison.

Milla, your mother was an actress. Was that an influence for you?

JOVOVICH My mother was a movie star in the former Soviet Union. We defected to America in 1981 or so, my parents literally started from scratch. My mother tried to teach me what she knew to help us settle into a new country. So acting wasn’t really a choice for me. It was more of a necessity. I feel like maybe part of the reason I’m having such a hard time seeing myself on screen is because I never really believed in myself that I could be as good as her. But I don’t blame my mother; now i’m really thankful for that, because with my own daughter [Ever Anderson]I feel like I really nurtured her talent.

Paul, were there any filmmakers that inspired you?

ANDERSON The Scott brothers were a huge inspiration as Ridley and Tony were also from the north of England. It used to be shipbuilding and coal mining, and when I was a kid it was all industrial decay and unemployment.

Is industrial decay a key to all the post-apocalyptic landscapes in these movies?

JOVOVICH Paul is the king of industrial decay. My mother always complains. [Russian accent] “Why don’t you put an evening dress on her and do beautiful, glamorous hair. Always dirty. Always dirty. Always blood. Always terrible places. Disgusting.” [Anderson laughs]

ANDERSON I remember walking into the makeup trailer of Resident Evil: Extinction in the desert in Mexico [on a visit to the set of the 2007 film directed by Russell Mulcahy]. Milla is in there and the makeup artist has put on so much dirt. I think that’s enough dirt! And you could see that Milla was a little upset. A minute later I see her outside, chasing a truck around because it’s kicking up so much dust. And she’s just trying to get extra dirty!

JOVOVICH I’m telling you, nothing suits me better than blood and dust.

Categories
Health

Covid-19 omicron pictures out there, however their effectiveness is unclear

Covid-19 omicron shots available, but their effectiveness is unclear

The US this week approved the first major revision of Covid-19 vaccines in a bid to stem an expected spate of infections and hospitalizations this fall.

However, it is unclear how much protection the new booster shots will offer. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have cleared the footage without data from clinical trials testing the newly formulated doses in humans.

The new boosters, approved for people 12 and older, target the highly contagious and immune-avoidable subvariant omicron BA.5, which sparked a surge in breakthrough infections over the summer. The shots also targeted the original strain of the virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019.

The country’s top health authorities acted urgently this summer to ensure the new boosters are rolled out in time for the fall. They are concerned that the declining effectiveness of legacy vaccines creates an opportunity for omicron to trigger another wave of hospitalizations this winter as people spend more time indoors, where the airborne virus spreads more easily.

According to CDC epidemiologist Heather Scobie, deaths and hospitalizations among the elderly, the most commonly vaccinated age group in America, have risen since April as Omicron continues to mutate into more transmissible subvariants that evade the protection of the original vaccines.

dr Peter Marks, who heads the FDA’s office that reviews vaccines, said the new boosters aim to restore the high level of protection vaccines showed in early 2021. However, Marks acknowledged that federal government experts just don’t know yet whether the boosters will meet the high bar that these doses set.

“We don’t yet know exactly if we’ll reach the same level, but that’s the goal here. And we think the evidence we’ve seen suggests that,” Marks told reporters during a news conference following the FDA approval Wednesday.

The FDA will be monitoring to see if the boosters are meeting that goal, Marks said. When Pfizer and Moderna’s syringes were approved in December 2020, they offered more than 90 percent protection in preventing Covid.

Marks told reporters it will likely be at least a few more months before human data on the BA.5 boosters is available to the public. But he said the FDA used essentially the same process to authorize the new boosters it’s relied on for years to switch virus strains in flu shots.

“We’re pretty confident that what we have is very similar to the situation that we’ve done in the past with influenza mutations where we’re not conducting clinical trials for them in the United States,” Marks said. “We know from how the vaccine works and from the data we have that we can predict how well the vaccine will work.”

The new boosters could prevent 2.4 million infections, 137,000 hospitalizations and 9,700 deaths if no new variant emerges, according to a forecast by a team of scientists predicting the course of the pandemic, called the Covid-19 Scenario Modeling Hub.

However, according to the scientists, this forecast is based on optimistic assumptions about the coverage and effectiveness of boosters. The model assumes that vaccines will prove 80% effective in preventing disease and the public will largely embrace the new boosters. There is no efficacy data on the new shots and it is unclear how strong the public demand for them will be.

The CDC estimates that an early fall immunization campaign with booster shots could save the United States between $63 billion and $109 billion in medical costs by preventing hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

Pfizer and Moderna originally developed new boosters to target the first version of Omicron, BA.1, which caused the massive wave of infections and hospitalizations last winter. But keeping up with the rapid evolution of the virus has proven to be a challenge.

By the time the country’s top health leaders began providing new boosters in earnest in April, more transmissible subvariants had already pushed omicron BA.1 out of circulation. In June, the FDA urged vaccine makers to shift gears and target Omicron BA.5 after it rose to dominance.

That decision didn’t leave Pfizer and Moderna enough time to complete human clinical trials of the new boosters before a fall launch of the vaccine.

As a result, the FDA and CDC rely on human data from the clinical trials of the BA.1 syringes to understand how the BA.5 boosters might work. They also relied on data from studies testing the BA.5 boosters in mice.

The CDC’s Independent Advisory Committee supported the shooting Thursday in an overwhelming vote.

However, some members of the panel also had concerns about the lack of human data.

“I’m really struggling with a vaccine that doesn’t have clinical data that’s reported for people, for those who would actually get the vaccine,” said Dr. Oliver Brooks, a committee member and chief medical officer at Watts HealthCare Corp. in Los Engel.

dr Pablo Sanchez, the only member of the CDC committee who voted against the injections, called the decision to recommend the new boosters without human data premature.

“There’s already a lot of hesitation with vaccines — we need the human data,” said Sanchez, a professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University.

dr Doran Fink, deputy chief of the FDA’s Division of Vaccine Review, told the hesitant committee members that the new booster shots use the exact same manufacturing process as the old vaccines and contain the same total amount of mRNA, the code that instructs human cells to produce the proteins that evoke an immune response to fight off Covid.

Fink said the BA.1 and the BA.5 recordings are similar enough to use data from the BA.1 human trials to get a good idea of ​​how the new BA.5 boosters work will work.

Pfizer and Moderna presented data at the CDC meeting showing that the BA.1 vaccines elicited a stronger immune response in humans than the old vaccines. The mouse studies by both companies on the BA.5 syringes also showed a stronger immune response.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week that a longer wait for human data from the BA.5 shots could mean the boosters are out of date by the time a new variant emerges.

“It’s always about too slow versus too fast,” Walensky told Conversations on Health Care in a radio interview. “One of the challenges is when we wait for that data to show up in human data… we’re going to be using what I think might be an outdated vaccine.”

Moderna completed recruitment for its clinical trials last week and expects results by the end of the year. Pfizer’s clinical trials are ongoing, although the company hasn’t given a timeline for when it will have data.

Brooks questioned why the FDA chose a BA.5 vaccine when clinical data is available for the BA.1 vaccines that vaccine manufacturers originally developed. Canada and the UK have approved new booster shots targeting omicron BA.1

Fink said the US approved BA.5 based on advice from the FDA’s independent committee, data from South Africa indicating that natural infection by the subvariant provides broader protection than infection by BA.1, and the fact that BA.5 is dominant.

Although committee members were somewhat reluctant to proceed without the human data, they agreed that the new boosters should have a similar safety profile to the old vaccines, as they use the same platform. The Covid vaccines have been given to millions of people in the US with mostly mild side effects.

According to the FDA, the most common side effects from the human trials of BA.1 syringes were pain, redness, swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting, and fever.

dr Sara Oliver, a CDC official, told the committee that the risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after a BA.5 booster is unknown. However, health authorities believe it will be similar to the risk seen with the old vaccines.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been associated with an increased risk of myocarditis in young men and adolescent boys, mainly after the second dose. However, according to the CDC, the risk of myocarditis is higher from Covid infection than from vaccination.

dr Grace Lee, the chair of the CDC committee, tried to reassure the public that there is a robust monitoring system to monitor safety and that the panel will meet again if new concerns arise.

“I just want to make sure members of the public know we’re continuing to monitor closely,” Lee said. “We have systems and teams that continue to monitor and meet.”

Categories
World News

Renewed Shelling Places Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Threat

Renewed Shelling Puts Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Risk

Even as hopes grew that a permanent presence of United Nations inspectors would help reduce the risk of a disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the war once again threatened the plant’s safe operation.

After Friday night’s shelling, the plant lost connection to its only remaining primary external power line, forcing it to use a lower-voltage backup line to power the cooling equipment needed to prevent core meltdowns, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement on Saturday.

Still, the agency’s director, Rafael Mariano Grossi, expressed cautious optimism that a plan to indefinitely station two nuclear experts at the facility would help reduce the risk of a disaster.

“We think it was important for the agency to be there permanently,” he said. “The difference between being there and not being there is like night and day.”

The decision to monitor the facility despite the obvious risks underscored what Mr. Grossi described as the “unprecedented” danger of the moment. He added that having independent nuclear experts at the plant will allow for real-time, unbiased reports on conditions.

“Now if there is a claim that something happened at the plant, you can contact us,” he said, rather than weighing the conflicting claims of Russia and Ukraine.

Mr Grossi, who has avoided blaming either the Russians or the Ukrainians for the shelling, said on Friday that it appeared the power plant’s power supply was being deliberately attacked.

“It is clear that those who have these military targets know very well that the way to cripple or do more damage is not to look inside the reactors, which are enormously robust and robust,” he said . Instead, the rig gets hit where it hurts — the power lines that are essential to its operation.

On Saturday, Mr Grossi said the presence of the agency’s inspectors, who were able to confirm the damage to the external power line, had already proved valuable.

“Our on-site team received direct, fast and reliable information on the latest significant developments affecting the power plant’s external power supply and the operational status of the reactors,” he said.

One of the plant’s six reactors is currently operational, the agency said, producing electricity for both cooling and other vital safety functions at the site, as well as for Ukrainian homes and factories.

The UN’s move to keep two inspectors at the facility comes as fighting rages on in southern and eastern Ukraine. The facility is perilously close to some of the most intense combat.

Late last month, the Ukrainian military launched a counter-offensive in the south, including the area directly opposite the nuclear power plant in the western Kherson region. On Saturday, British military intelligence said Ukraine’s advance on three fronts was likely “to have generated a degree of tactical surprise; Exploitation of poor logistics, administration and leadership in the Russian Armed Forces.”

But military analysts have dampened expectations for Ukraine’s push, saying between 15,000 and 25,000 Russian troops are stationed in fortified defenses west of the Dnieper.

Jack Watling, a research fellow and specialist in land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in Britain, wrote that unless Russian forces collapse from abysmal morale – which he says is “possible, but not something assumed in the planning can be” – then anything Success on the battlefield for the Ukrainians would take time.

On another front in the Ukraine war, German officials expressed cautious confidence their country could survive a winter without Russian energy after Russia indefinitely postponed gas supplies to the country.

Aware of President Vladimir V. Putin’s history of using energy supplies as a foreign policy tool, Berlin has been bracing for months for the possibility that Russia could cut gas supplies in retaliation for European resistance to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The German government has imposed tough energy-saving measures, and the ministry responsible for gas supplies found that Germany’s gas storage facilities are already nearly 85 percent full, a target set for early October.

And while Germany got 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia in February when Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian gas made up only about 10 percent of Germany’s on Tuesday — the last full day that gas flowed through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline gas mixes. thanks to months of gas procurement from other countries.

Gazprom, the Russian-owned energy giant, was scheduled to resume gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Saturday after three days of maintenance. But hours earlier, on what a European Union official called “false pretexts,” it said it found oil leaks around a turbine used to pressurize the pipeline, forcing it to restart cancel. There was no schedule for the reboot.

In Washington on Friday, the Biden administration asked Congress for $13.7 billion in additional aid to Ukraine, underscoring its commitment to supporting the war-torn country even as the conflict shows little sign of abating .

As part of Ukraine’s funding request, $7.2 billion would be used to give the country new weapons and military equipment, replenish US stockpiles and provide other defense-related support, government officials said. Another $4.5 billion would support the Ukrainian government and $2 billion would be used to offset the impact of the Russian invasion on energy supplies.

Marc Santora reported from Kyiv and Andrew E. Kramer from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Reporting was provided by Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin, Michael D. Shear from Washington and Dan Bilefsky from Montreal.