WASHINGTON — Top science officials in the Biden administration sought on Thursday to allay concerns about the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has prompted renewed calls for mask wearing in some places. Compounding the alarm was an announcement last week from the World Health Organization that even vaccinated people should continue to wear masks. “Vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission,” a top WHO deputy explained in justifying the move, which appeared… Source link

Charges of larceny, tax fraud and other crimes come at inconvenient time for the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Company attorneys say New York prosecutors politically hostile to Trump are chasing trivial matters no other prosecutor would bother with. Yet the details of the indictment reveal wealthy executives padding their bank accounts by exploiting privileges ordinary workers can only dream of. It’s exhibit 999 or maybe 1,001 in the recent parade… Source link

UPDATED: Donald Trump may or may not be joining “Gettr,” a newly launched social app from the ex-president’s ex-spokesman. The twice-impeached Trump has been kicked off — or frozen out of — mainstream social media services over his role in the Jan. 6 assault on Capitol Hill. But after news broke Thursday about the app’s ties to the former U.S. president, it was quickly populated with fake accounts from people trying to make it look like Trump had joined the app. Gettr was founded… Source link

New stimulus benefit offers free health insurance through the end of this year The massive COVID rescue package President Joe Biden signed back in March — the same law that included $1,400 stimulus and the upcoming monthly payments for families — is now offering free health insurance to millions of Americans, through the end of 2021. The benefit’s zero-premium health care plans just became available, as of July 1, and there are no income limits to qualify. But you must meet one big… Source link

Krispy Kreme (DNUT) on Thursday began its second incarnation as a public company, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DNUT.”  Shares of the doughnut chain priced in at $17 on Wednesday, slightly below the expected range of $21 to $24. Yet the stock popped by nearly 10% in midday trading, after a lackluster debut at $16.30 per share. Analysts had initially seen Krispy Kreme’s valuation topping $3 billion, but the stock listing undermined some of the loftier estimates. Still, CEO… Source link

LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul was feeling it. He couldn’t be stopped. The Phoenix Suns kept feeding him. Teammate Jae Crowder kept asking him in the fourth quarter if he could taste it yet, referring to sweet victory. Paul’s replies were no. That was bad news for the Los Angeles Clippers. Midway in that final frame with Los Angeles up 23, Clippers pesky guard Patrick Beverley was hounding the star guard defensively. Paul asked for a pick from Deandre Ayton and got the switch he wanted in… Source link

Google is doing various deals with American defense agencies. One unreported contract from 2020 … [+] shows how its cloud and AI tools could prove useful to the Pentagon. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Getty Images Amidst concerns over Big Tech sales of AI technology to the Pentagon, Google furnished the Department of Defense with cloud software and artificial intelligence tools to help the agency deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a previously undisclosed… Source link

At the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris on Thursday Twitter, TikTok, Google, and Facebook committed to tackling online abuse and improving safety for women on their platforms. The pledge came following consultations with the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF) over the past year, aimed at examining online gender-based violence and abuse. The WWWF said the consultations showed women want more control over who could reply or comment on their social media posts and more choice around what… Source link

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk recently spoke out regarding the energy consumption of bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other cryptocurrency mining operations, questioning the sustainability of current levels of power consumption and emphasizing the importance of adopting renewable energy sources.  However, Don Vo, CEO of VBit Technologies, told Yahoo Finance Live that he believes Musk is wrong about the issue. “I think Elon Musk is wrong, or maybe he’s just setting up a story for his front and his future… Source link

Earlier this week, Australian developer Chris Lacy tweeted about a curious experience while logging into a rarely used Google account. When Google texted his two-factor authentication code, the message popped up along with an ad including a link for VPN services. Considering the downsides of phishing or malware distribution attached to a code that’s specifically intended to keep your account secure, this didn’t go over well. While Lacy did not name the carrier who delivered the text,… Source link