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A panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration voted Wednesday to update the COVID-19 vaccine formula ahead of a planned fall immunization campaign, now an annual step to try to offer better protection against circulating versions of the virus.The unanimous vote of 16 advisers recommends a formula aimed at combating the JN.1 variant, which dominated infections in the United States in February, or a version of it. In recent weeks, JN.1 has been overtaken by descendants known as KP.2 and KP.3.In the coming weeks, the FDA is expected to formally recommend a target variant to vaccine makers for the next round of vaccinations in late summer or early fall. Any decision involves some educated guesswork, given that any new vaccine formula won't be available until months after a vari...

Bertien van Manen, a Dutch photographer who used point-and-shoot cameras to capture intimate images of daily life in the big cities and remote villages of China, the dingy apartments and alleys of post-Soviet Russia, and the coal miners of Kentucky, is died May 26. in Amsterdam. He was 89 years old.His practice director, Iris Bergman, said the cause of his death, which occurred in a rehabilitation facility, was pneumonia.Ms. van Manen was working as a fashion photographer in 1975 when a friend gave her a copy of "The Americans," the groundbreaking collection of photos that photographer Robert Frank took during a trip across the United States in the 1950s.“He wasn't at all interested in making beautiful photographs, and yet that's who I am,” Ms. van Manen told Aperture Magazine. ...

Electric cars are more expensive than petrol ones, mainly because the batteries cost a lot. But new technology could turn these expensive devices into an asset, offering owners benefits such as reduced utility bills, lower rents or free parking.Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW and other automakers are exploring how electric car batteries could be used to store excess renewable energy to help utilities manage fluctuations in energy supply and demand. Automakers would earn money by acting as intermediaries between car owners and energy suppliers.Millions of cars could be thought of as a huge energy system that, for the first time, will be connected to another huge energy system, the electric grid, said Matthias Preindl, associate professor of power electronic systems at Columbia University....

President Biden raised hopes last week when he approved a plan that he said could lead to a “permanent cessation of hostilities.” He said Israel has presented the plan, but neither Israel nor Hamas have said definitively whether they will accept or reject the proposal, and they appear to still be locked in disagreement on key issues.Here's a look at what is known about the ceasefire agreement, what key points still need to be negotiated, and the obstacles still to be addressed:What's in the plan?In November, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that lasted a week. But the proposal now on the table – as presented by Biden, a senior US administration official and Israeli officials – is more ambitious. Major questions remain unresolved, including whether Hamas will retain control...

Kirabet, bahis severlere güvenilir ve heyecan dolu bir oyun deneyimi sunan online gazino platformudur. Bahis dünyasında adından sıkça söz ettiren Kirabet, kullanıcılarına geniş bir oyun yelpazesi ve yüksek güvenlik standartları ile hizmet vermektedir. Bahis yaparken dikkat etmeniz gereken unsurları bilmek, kazanma şansınızı artırabilir ve keyifli bir bahis deneyimi yaşamanıza yardımcı olabilir. Kirabet Nedir ve Nasıl Güvenilir Olabilir? Kirabet, online bahis ve gazino platformudur. Güvenilir bir bahis deneyimi için dikkat edilmesi gereken birkaç önemli nokta vardır. Kirabet'in güvenilir olabilmesi için lisanslı olması önemlidir. Lisanslı bir platform, kullanıcılarına güvenilir ve adil bir oyun ortamı sunar. Ayrıca, Kirabet'in müşteri hizmetleri kalitesi de güvenilirliğini belirleyen ...

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. An independent advisory panel of experts reviewed the studies on June 4 and decided not to approve the treatment.Lykos Therapeutics submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to get the agency's approval to legally sell the drug to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD, including military veterans at high risk for suicide. No new treatments for PTSD have been approved in more than 20 years.What is MDMA?Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic psychoactive drug first developed by Merck in 1912. After being synthesized in the mid-1970s by Alexander Shulgin, a Bay...

Amanda Knox, the American convicted and later cleared of killing her roommate while they studied in Italy, is due to appear again in an Italian court on Wednesday, this time to defend herself against defamation charges linked to the 2007 murder.It is the latest twist in a dramatic legal journey whose echoes continue to resonate nearly 17 years after the murder of roommate Meredith Kercher, a British student, which sparked headlines around the world and turned Ms. Knox into a staple of the tabloids.Knox is on trial again on charges of defaming the owner of the bar where she worked by accusing him of killing Kercher, who was stabbed. She was convicted of slander in 2009 and was confirmed by various Italian courts.But a European court ruling and a change in Italian law allowed a new appeal b...

A group of OpenAI insiders are calling out what they say is a culture of recklessness and secrecy at the San Francisco artificial intelligence company, which is racing to build the most powerful artificial intelligence systems ever created.The group, which includes nine current and former OpenAI employees, has rallied in recent days around shared concerns that the company hasn't done enough to prevent its artificial intelligence systems from becoming dangerous.Members say OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit research lab and went public with the release of ChatGPT in 2022, is prioritizing profits and growth in an effort to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the industry term for a computer. program capable of doing everything a human can do.They also allege that OpenAI use...

The House voted mostly along party lines Tuesday to impose sweeping sanctions on International Criminal Court officials, rebuking efforts by the court's top prosecutor to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes in connection with the offensive against Hamas.The bill would force President Biden to restrict entry to the United States, revoke visas and impose financial restrictions on anyone in court who is involved in attempting to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute “protected persons” or allies of the United States . It would also target anyone providing “financial, material or technological support” to such efforts.Biden's advisers said he is "strongly opposed" to the measure because it would impose sanctions on such a broad group of officials, including court staff membe...

An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday rejected the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, highlighting the unprecedented regulatory challenges of a new therapy using the drug commonly known as Ecstasy.Before the vote, committee members expressed concerns about the design of the two studies submitted by the drug's sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics. Many questions focused on whether study participants were generally able to correctly guess whether they had taken MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly. The jury voted 9-2 on the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy and 10-1 on whether the benefits of the proposed treatment outweighed the risks.Other speakers expressed concerns about the drug's potential cardiovascular effects...