Zac Efron thinks his positive attitude has helped him to remain “grounded”.

The 34-year-old actor – who starred in the ‘High School Musical’ franchise during his younger years – believes “staying positive no matter what” has allowed him to avoid the pitfalls of fame and success.

Zac explained that his secret to staying balanced is to “stop, slow down and take time to get grounded”.

He added: “It does take some time for the stress to wear off.”

The Hollywood star revealed that he loves “spending time with friends and family, travel and the exploration of new places and cultures, anything that gets me outdoors”.

Zac is also a huge fan of video games, admitting it’s one of the things he does in order to relax and escape his everyday stresses.

He told People: “The first game I remember really loving was ‘Zelda’ on N64 and the ‘Super Smash Brothers’ on Nintendo 64.

“I have been gaming with friends and family since the Super Nintendo days so it’s been a long time. I’ve never played ‘World of Warcraft’ because it looks so hard to wrap my head around!”

Meanwhile, Zac previously revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio helped him to adjust to fame.

The actor first met the ‘Titanic’ star in 2008, when they sat next to each other at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, and he appreciates that Leonardo made a concerted effort to offer him some much-needed advice.

He said: “I really appreciate that he took that time. He made me feel good about it, helped me a little bit. That’s the biggest hand you can extend if you’re in Hollywood, looking out for somebody younger.

“So rock on, Leo. Thank you, buddy.”

By Tyler Clifford

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Neil Young has threatened to pull his music from the Spotify streaming service in protest of its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan, who the prolific singer-songwriter accuses of spreading misinformation about COVID-19, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Young, who survived polio as a child, briefly posted a letter on his website addressed to his manager and his record label, Warner Music Group, demanding that Spotify no longer carry his music. The letter was later deleted.

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote in the letter, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” the newspaper quoted Young, 76, as writing.

Rogan, 54, is the host of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the top-rated podcast on Spotify, which has exclusive rights to the program.

As of Tuesday, Young’s music, including such songs as “Heart Of Gold,” “Rocking In The Free World” and “Old Man,” was still available on the service, as was Rogan’s podcast.

Spotify, Warner Music Group and “The Joe Rogan Experience” did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for Young could not be reached.

Rogan, who began his career as a stand-up comedian, has long stirred controversy with his views on the pandemic, government mandates and vaccines to control the spread of the coronavirus. He has questioned the need for COVID-19 vaccines on his show and said he used ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that has no proven benefit against COVID.

In the letter, Young singled out one episode in which a Rogan guest was pushing debunked anti vaccination theories, the Journal reported.

Young’s letter noted that Rogan’s podcast draws 11 million listeners each episode and highlighted that Spotify lacks a misinformation policy, the newspaper said.

Spotify began carrying Rogan’s podcast in September as part of its efforts to transform itself into the Netflix of audio. Rogan maintains full creative control over the show.

Earlier this month, 270 scientists and medical professionals signed an open letter to Spotify to take action against Rogan, accusing him of spreading falsehoods on the podcast.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Washington (AFP) – The United States warned Moscow on Tuesday of damaging sanctions, including measures personally targeting Vladimir Putin, as Russian combat troops massing around Ukraine launched new exercises.

Tension appeared to be only increasing, with the White House saying the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine “remains imminent.”

Warning that would prompt “enormous consequences” and even “change the world,” President Joe Biden said he would consider adding direct sanctions on Putin to a raft of measures being drawn up.

“Yes. I would see that,” Biden said when asked by reporters in Washington about targeting Putin, whom opponents have long accused of holding gigantic, secret wealth.

A senior US official laid out economic sanctions “with massive consequences” that go far beyond previous measures implemented in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimea region, warning that “the gradualism of the past is out.”

New measures would include restrictions on exports of high-tech US equipment in the artificial intelligence, quantum computing and aerospace sectors, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

“What we’re talking about are sophisticated technologies that we design and produce,” and cutting them off would hit Putin’s “strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy quite hard,” the official said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed the threat, saying sanctions would be “heavier than anything we’ve ever done.”

In a bid to break the growing tension, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would talk by telephone with Putin on Friday, seeking “clarification” on Moscow’s intentions.

New Russian military exercises

A day after Washington said it was putting 8,500 US troops on alert for possible deployment to bolster NATO forces in Europe, the Russian military announced it was conducting new drills involving 6,000 troops near Ukraine and within the Crimea region.

The drills included firing exercises with fighter jets, bombers, anti-aircraft systems and ships from the Black Sea and Caspian fleets, the defense ministry said.

According to Western officials, the Kremlin has already deployed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, with reinforcements arriving from all over Russia.

“We continue to watch the accumulation of significant combat power,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Canada announced it was following Britain and the United States in pulling families of its diplomats out of Ukraine.

The United States and its EU allies accuse Russia of seeking to upend European stability by threatening invasion of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic striving to join NATO and other Western institutions.

Moscow denies plans to invade the country, where in addition to seizing Crimea it backs separatist forces in the east.

Russia instead blames the West for the tension and has put forward a list of demands, including a guarantee that Ukraine never join NATO and that NATO forces already in the former Soviet bloc pull back.

Energy threats

The senior US official said “contingency” plans were being drawn up to get Europe through the winter in case of Russia squeezing or even cutting off energy supplies.

Washington and its European allies are scouring global markets for alternative energy sources, even as Europe already struggles with soaring mid-winter energy prices.

The US official said that if Russia uses energy supplies to retaliate against sanctions, this would backfire.

“If Russia decides to weaponize its supply of natural gas or crude oil, it wouldn’t be without consequences to the Russian economy,” a senior US official told reporters.

Although the European Union sources about 40 percent of its supply from Russia, Moscow also relies heavily on sales of energy, meaning “it’s an interdependency,” the official said.

Negotiating attempts

Negotiations this month have failed to ease tensions, though the US and Russia have agreed to keep talking.

In addition to the Macron-Putin talks later, the French government said Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet, along with French and German counterparts, in Paris on Wednesday.

Washington has promised to provide written answers to Moscow’s demands this week, while already making clear that it rejects giving Russia a veto on Ukraine joining NATO.

But the crisis has laid bare divisions in the West.

The new government in Germany in particular has faced criticism from Kyiv over its refusal to send defensive weapons to Ukraine, as well as hesitating over one of the harshest economic sanctions under discussion — cutting Moscow from the global SWIFT payments system.

Weapons arrive

Ukraine’s military is heavily outgunned by Russia and Biden repeated that he has “no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine.”

However, the United States has stepped up deliveries of weapons. A shipment arrived on Saturday and another batch was due Tuesday.

At a ceremony for the latest shipment arriving in Kyiv, US charge d’affaires Kristina Kvien said “our preference is diplomacy.”

But in case of attack by Russia, “the Kremlin will face fierce resistance, the losses to Russia will be heavy.”

“If President Putin decides to make this reckless choice, we will provide additional defensive material to the Ukrainians above and beyond what we’ve already sent,” she said.

burs-sms/st

By Maria Caspani and Lisa Shumaker

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as COVID-19 cases drop and hospitalizations show signs of plateauing in hard-hit pockets of the United States, the still-rising death toll from the Omicron variant highlights the trail of loss that follows every virus surge.

Coronavirus deaths hit an 11-month high on Sunday, climbing 11% in the past week when compared to the prior week, according to a Reuters analysis.

COVID-19 fatalities are a lagging indicator, meaning their numbers usually rise a few weeks after new cases and hospitalizations.

The Omicron death toll has now surpassed the height of deaths caused by the more severe Delta variant when the seven-day average peaked at 2,078 on Sept. 23 last year. An average of 2,200 people a day, mostly unvaccinated, are now dying due to Omicron.

That is still below the peak of 3,300 lives lost a day during the surge in January 2021 as vaccines were just being rolled out.

“It will be a while until we see (a) decrease in death as very sick people with COVID remain hospitalized for a long time,” said Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University in New York City.

As Omicron surged in December and earlier this month, hospital systems from New Jersey to New Mexico buckled under the sheer number of patients brought in by the apparently less severe but highly infectious variant, prompting the federal government to send military medical aid to six states.

“More infectious variants tend to run through a population very rapidly,” said El-Sadr in an email. “Even if such new variants cause less severe disease (particularly among those vaccinated and boosted), we will likely still see increase in hospitalizations and deaths due to vulnerability of unvaccinated and unboosted.”

COVID-19 hospitalizations are still setting records in some states including Arkansas and North Carolina. Nationally they are now under 147,000, compared with a peak of 152,746 on Jan. 20, the Reuters tally shows.

Cases nationally are down by 12% in the last seven days compared with the prior seven, the analysis found, prompting some health officials to strike a cautiously optimist tone on the trajectory of the pandemic.

“It’s certainly reached its peak in certain regions of the country,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday. “I believe that in the next few weeks we will see – as a country – that it is all turning around.”

U.S. COVID-19 data often lag a few days behind the actual state of affairs and paints an imperfect picture.

Positive findings from the now ubiquitous at-home tests are not included in the official case count, while hospitalization counts often do not differentiate between patients who are receiving treatment for COVID-19 and others who test positive while in the hospital with other issues.

On Monday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that it was dangerous to assume Omicron would herald the end of COVID-19’s most acute phase, and exhorted nations to stay focused to beat the pandemic.

The Omicron wave scrambled the hopes of Americans for a gradual transition into a post-pandemic reality and re-ignited tensions around masking and vaccines in schools and workplaces, exposing once again the deep political fault lines cracked open by the health crisis.

On Sunday, large crowds rallied in Washington, D.C., in opposition of COVID-19 mandates, some holding signs that read “people call the shot, not the government.”

Virginia’s new Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is facing a lawsuit from seven school boards seeking to stop his order that would make masks optional in school as of Monday.

A spokesperson for Youngkin, vowing to fight the lawsuit, said on Monday, “We are disappointed that these school boards are ignoring parent’s rights.”

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Christine Kiernan in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot)

Checking in at a test centre, downloading a restaurant menu onto your phone, looking up a website advertised on a poster: QR codes have become part of everyday life.

Criminals are also taking advantage of the popularity of these black and white square codes, designed for reading with your smartphone camera.

The scam works like this: A legitimate-looking QR code guides an unsuspecting person to a fake website. There, the user is asked to log into a sensitive account, such as a payment service.

The scammers then gain access to your financial information, allowing them to make payments or steal cryptocurrency.

That’s why US law enforcement agency FBI is calling on users to limit their trust in public QR codes, even in official settings, as they are easy to manipulate or cover with codes linking to fake websites.

It is also possible that a QR code brings you to a site that downloads and installs malware on your phone, allowing cybercriminals to gain access to your device and the data on it and potentially hold it ransom for a payment.

To avoid falling for a QR code scam, the FBI offers the following tips:

– When scanning a code, check that the website you were expected actually opens and that it is authentic: The web address must be completely correct (no misplaced letters or errors).

– If a website is asking you to log in to a service where your personal information or financial data is stored, alarm bells should be ringing if the page was accessed via a QR code.

– If possible, do not make any payments on websites accessed via a QR code. Instead, it is better to manually enter the website of the platform you’re looking for.

– In the case of printed QR codes, you should always make sure that nobody has pasted a different code over the original code.

– If possible, don’t start app downloads and installations via QR codes, but download apps from the official stores.

– Don’t install a QR code scanner app: The camera on your smartphone should already work as a scanner. If not, you can find a scanner function in your browser.

New York (AFP) – Pop megastar Elton John on Tuesday postponed two concerts in Dallas — part of what is expected to be a lengthy farewell tour — after testing positive for Covid-19.

“It’s always a massive disappointment to move shows and I’m so sorry to anyone who’s been inconvenienced by this but I want to keep myself and my team safe,” said the British musician, 74, in a statement on social media.

“Fortunately, I’m fully vaccinated and boosted and my symptoms are mild.”

The concerts, part of John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, were scheduled for January 25 and January 26. Both John and the American Airlines Center, where the shows were to take place, said they will be rescheduled and fans should keep their tickets.

John said he expected to be healthy enough to play his show on January 29 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The tour, which is anticipated to be Sir Elton’s last, has run into pandemic-era cancellations and postponements, like many other performing arts events.

The pop legend also recently had a hip operation that forced him to push back several dates.

Last year, John released an album entitled “The Lockdown Sessions,” which was recorded entirely under Covid-19 restrictions.

Tessa Thompson has suggested that the romance in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ will be different from past Marvel movies.

The 38-year-old actress is set to play Valkyrie – the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) first LGBTQ character – in the upcoming movie and explained the importance of including the superhero’s sexuality in the new project.

Tessa told TheWrap: “It’s totally exciting. We talk so much about representation and obviously, in terms of the LGBTQIA community, there’s still so much work to be done. But if you look at the comics in the canon, there are so many queer characters!”

The ‘Creed’ actress continued: “It’s hard because Taika (Waititi) and I would’ve even liked to go further, but in the context of the movies, there’s only so much we can do.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of time invested in love stories in Marvel movies in general. I think that will be a little different on the new ‘Thor’, which is exciting. And getting to play a character that historically is not written for somebody that looks like me, all of that felt exciting.”

The movie’s director Taika Waititi previously stressed that romance is at the heart of the new blockbuster, which will also star Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman.

The 46-year-old star said: “I think it’s going to be really good. We’ve been writing the script off and on for a year and I’m just, actually this week, doing another pass on it.

“It is so insane and it’s also very romantic. I’m into romances now. I want to make romance. I want to make something that I’ve never done or cared for. I would like to attack something like that.”

Washington (AFP) – From the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as fear and isolation spread, Dave Perruzza had one thought — he had seen it before.

“For me, it was thinking about the AIDS epidemic all over again, how nobody took it seriously,” said Perruzza, who owns two LGBT bars in Washington, the US capital.

“We were like, ‘Well, we’re going to take this seriously.'”

With the Omicron variant fueling fresh restrictions around the world, some older members of the LGBT community say their shared experience of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s put them ahead of the curve throughout the pandemic.

Perruzza has for months been requiring customers show Covid vaccination cards to enter his bars — popular gay spot Pitchers and neighboring lesbian venue A League of Her Own, in the Adams Morgan district of the city.

He implemented his vaccine rules in July, one of the first in Washington to do so — and months before the local government began this month to do the same.

“I think my age bracket is the last bracket that saw people that actually died of AIDS,” Perruzza, 43, who lost his first boyfriend to the disease, told AFP.

“I’m not going to let history repeat itself.”

The HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States raged for two decades after the first US case was discovered in 1981, and still claims lives today.

It primarily affected gay and bisexual men, Black and Latino men and trans women.

Then-president Ronald Reagan didn’t declare AIDS research a federal priority until 1985, and the first treatment was developed in 1987.

By the end of 2000, at least 450,000 people had died of AIDS in the United States, according to government data.

Same ‘hysteria and lies’

The pandemic has also brought back painful memories for Eric Sawyer, a founding member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP, who also lost his partner to the disease.

“The misinformation, the hysteria, the spread of just absolute lies (and) the attempts by individuals to address it being part of the problem,” said Sawyer, who also worked with the UN’s HIV/AIDS program.

“The stigma and discrimination that people who had Covid face… completely parallel the HIV response.”

But some lessons may have been learned between the two health crises.

“The HIV epidemic taught us that education, testing and access to prevention methodologies” can be effective, said Sawyer.

HIV activists have also advocated for better distribution of supplies, as well as vaccine access for poor communities, communities of color and homeless people.

Even as these activists worked to combat Covid-19, however, the pandemic took a toll on the ongoing fight against HIV.

Studies by the Global Fund and UNAIDS found that the pandemic worldwide caused an 11 percent drop in prevention and treatment and a 22 percent drop in testing in 2020.

UNAIDS attributed the decrease to lockdowns that forced people into isolation, shuttered health services and disrupted HIV/AIDS programs.

‘You have to care’

“Because of our community’s now-four decades of experience with HIV, we understand chemical trials, we understand antivirals,” Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told AFP. “We’re not afraid of science.”

“As a community, we have a lot of solidarity,” he added, pointing out that many of those living with HIV are immunocompromised and need extra support.

LGBT activists rallied early in the pandemic to organize financial aid and safe housing for HIV-positive people. They also set up Covid testing at sexual health centers and Pride events.

Gay bars across the country began requiring proof of vaccination at the door, months before some US states followed suit. Almost half the states still reject any such requirements.

“LGBTQ bars are different… more like community centers,” said Ed Bailey, who co-owns Washington gay bars Trade and Number 9, pointing out that gay bars have distributed HIV literature and condoms for decades.

“Our bars are sometimes the only place some of the people that patronize us are able to go and be comfortable enough to be who they are,” said Bailey, 55. “That creates an entirely different level of responsibility.”

“You have to care about your community.”

Washington (AFP) – Waving signs denouncing President Joe Biden and calling for “freedom,” several thousand people demonstrated in Washington Sunday against what some described as the “tyranny” of Covid-19 vaccine mandates in the United States.

Speaker after speaker — including notorious anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust — took to the microphone in front of the white marble Lincoln Memorial to decry the rules.

Like other Covid restrictions aimed at reining in a disease that has infected more than 70 million people in the United States, killed more than 865,000 and brought much of daily life around the globe to a stuttering halt for two years and counting, vaccine mandates have become a deeply polarizing political issue.

“Mandates and freedoms don’t mix, like oil and water,” another speaker said. 

“Breathe. Inhale God, exhale fear,” exhorted yet another to applause from the crowd, made up of people of all ages, including children, and largely unmasked.

“I’m not anti-vaccine, but I’m anti this vaccine,” Michelle, a 61-year-old physical therapist from Virginia who declined to give her last name, told AFP. 

She said the messenger RNA serums developed by companies such as Pfizer and Moderna in record time were “too experimental” and “rushed.”

The mRNA vaccines, given to millions of people around the world in the past year, have been proven safe and effective, as well as being hailed as potential gamechangers in modern medicine. 

Michelle, who paused in the interview to sing the national anthem with other demonstrators, said she has a religious exemption from taking the vaccine — but that to continue coming to work in Washington she has to get tested every week.

To her regret, her son, who initially had also resisted taking the vaccine, has now relented.  

“He went and got it without me knowing — so much peer pressure,” she said. 

‘My body, my choice’

Another demonstrator, Therese is adamantly opposed to vaccines — all vaccines. 

She explained that she came by bus from Michigan, in the north of the country, to protest.

“Mandates are not appropriate… vaccines aren’t working, we’ve been lied to about the vaccines,” said the 61-year-old, who worked in a school cafeteria before her retirement and also refused to give her last name.

“And we should not be masking our children,” she added. 

“I talked to a couple of psychologists who say our children are suffering and they’re depressed… It’s terrible. We need our freedom back.”

Further up the steps, the speakers — including some people in white coats, presented as doctors from Texas — continue to come and go. 

“We are Americans and that’s what we do, we fight tyranny!” claims another. 

A few joggers, as if lost, walk through the crowd amid the signs proclaiming slogans such as “My body, my choice” or “God is our rock that will take down Goliath.” 

There are also many anti-Biden posters and a few flags bearing the name of his predecessor Donald Trump — under whom the vaccines were developed and who has taken credit for them.

Isaac Six, 34, shrugged off the difficulty of being unvaccinated while in Washington, where proof of vaccination is now required to go to restaurants and other public places. 

“It’s OK, we’re saving money,” the 34-year-old charity worker said with a laugh. 

Vaccines in general “are wonderful, they have helped millions of people,” he added.

But mandating these vaccines, which like all vaccines are not 100 percent effective at preventing transmission, is “completely irrational,” he argued. 

What worries him are policies adopted “out of fear and panic” and “by one person.” 

“I would like to see more of the legislative process involved, the people that we elected to represent us be the ones to actually pass legislation,” he said. 

Julia Fox has hit back at claims she is dating Kanye West for “attention”.

The 31-year-old actress insisted that their relationship is real and denied accusations that she is with the 44-year-old rapper for fame and money.

Speaking on her ‘Forbidden Fruits’ podcast, Julia said: “It’s funny cause I’m getting all of this attention, but I really couldn’t care.

“People are like ‘Oh, you’re only in it for the fame, you’re in it for the clout, you’re in it for the money.’ Honey, I’ve dated billionaires my entire adult life, let’s keep it real.

“Watch my movie, read my book. That is more thrilling to me now than eyes on me. I couldn’t care less.”

Meanwhile, Julia recently declared she is the “ideal candidate” for the “position” of Kanye’s girlfriend, because she doesn’t worry about what is being written about her and isn’t trying to make everyone “love” her.

She said: “People shouldn’t be defined by their darkest moment. As humans, we commit violence to each other, we police each other. We’ve created such a hostile environment, especially on the internet. That’s why I don’t read the headlines.

“No [I don’t read the comments]. And that’s why I feel like I’m a really good candidate for this position, because a lot of people in my shoes would probably be reading the comments and freaking out. I’m not trying to have everybody love me, I’m just trying to connect with people that are like-minded.”

When Kanye first started dating his now-estranged wife Kim Kardashian West, he famously overhauled her wardrobe, and Julia suggested he has done the same with her, but she is happy to be “surrendering” control to the rapper.

Asked the widest thing Kanye has dreamed up that she’s seen come to life, Julia told Interview magazine: “My transformation. After meeting him, a couple days later, all my s***was in boxes, gone. It was so cathartic. It wasn’t like I was just packing up my old clothes, it was like I was packing up my old life. I was like making that very conscious decision to really put everything in the box. To let go of the past.

“I’m really surrendering. For someone like me who’s such a control freak and always so used to taking care of myself, to just let go and be taken care of is foreign at this point in life. I’ve been the primary caretaker of everyone for so long, so it’s a new sensation, but honestly, I think I deserve it… I just feel really safe with him. It’s a redemption story.”

Lea Michele has unveiled her son’s face on social media for the first time.

The ‘Glee’ star shared the first glimpse of her 17-month-old son Ever’s face on Instagram as she posted a shot – taken by celebrity photographer Ashley Barret – to celebrate her husband Zandy Reich’s 39th birthday.

In the caption, the 35-year-old actress wrote: “Greatest man, father, husband and friend. I wake up every day so thankful you are ours Z. Happy Birthday! Ever and I love you so much.”

In the photo, the father and son duo rock matching Ray-Ban sunglasses, sweater and cap look.

Ever – who was born in August 2020 – appears frequently on his parents’ social media profiles however, this is the first time his face has been visible.

In November, the Broadway leading lady reflected on her journey to motherhood during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how making her album ‘Forever’ was soothing.

She said: “The moment that my son was handed to me was truly the greatest moment of my life. I’ve never been more thankful to God than in that moment.

“There were moments where we were told he would not be born, even very late into the journey of pregnancy, which is even scarier because as things go along, you get more and more frightened.

“It was just all OK the moment that we saw him.

“I was pregnant during the pandemic and I used music during my pregnancy, singing to my son, to let him know that everything was OK.”

The ‘Scream Queens’ star also praised Zandy for being “an incredible father” who helps her when it all gets a bit overwhelming.

Lea said: “I’m a very anxious person. Luckily it just brings me down to earth and grounds me and helps me to just enjoy it more and be less hard on myself.

“I’m very lucky to have such a supportive partner.”

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider limiting the scope of a landmark federal environmental law as it took up for the second time an Idaho couple’s bid to build on property the federal government has deemed a protected wetland.

The justices will hear an appeal by Chantell Sackett and her husband Mike Sackett, who own property in Priest Lake, Idaho where they hoped to build a home, of a lower court ruling favoring the government.

The court will consider what test courts should use to determine what constitute “waters of the United States” under the landmark 1972 Clean Water Act, the answer to which determines whether the property is subject to regulation, requiring owners to obtain permits in order to carry out construction.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 determined that the Sacketts’ land was part of a wetland and that they were required to obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act before beginning construction, which they had failed to do.

There has been lengthy litigation and political debates over how much of a connection with a waterway a property must have in order to require a permit, with the Supreme Court issuing a ruling in 2006 that led to further uncertainty.

The justices are expected to hear the case in their next term, which begins in October and ends in June 2023.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)