By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by a Christian former high school football coach who was suspended from his job at a high school in Washington state for refusing to halt his practice of praying at mid-field after games – a case that could expand the religious rights of employees of public institutions.

The justices took up an appeal by Joseph Kennedy, who served as an assistant football coach in the city of Bremerton, of a lower court ruling that rejected his claims that the school district’s actions violated his free speech and religious rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against Kennedy, determining that local officials would have violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion if they let Kennedy’s prayers and Christian-infused speeches continue.

Kennedy served as an assistant football coach at his alma mater, Bremerton High School, from 2008 to 2015.

At issue in the case is whether, as a public employee, Kennedy’s religious devotion alongside players on the football field constituted government speech, which can be regulated under Supreme Court precedents, or a private act, which the Constitution would protect.

Kennedy contends that his prayers and speeches were private in nature and not part of his official duties as coach. Bremerton School District disagreed, noting that Kennedy regularly delivered post-game prayers to crowds of players and others for years until officials learned about the religious nature of these sessions in 2015.

The school district said such prayers coming from the coach could be coercive, and some parents said their children felt compelled to participate.

The dispute began when the school district, wary that Kennedy’s actions could be perceived as an impermissible government endorsement of religion, notified him to stop the prayers while on duty, offering other private locations in the school as alternatives.

Kennedy refused and made media appearances publicizing his dispute with the school district, attracting national attention. After repeatedly defying school officials’ demands, he was placed on paid leave from his seasonal contract and did not re-apply as a coach for the subsequent season.

“No child attending public school should have to pray to play school sports,” said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a secularism advocacy group representing the school district.

The school district, Laser said, followed the law and protected student religious freedom when it stopped Kennedy from holding coercive prayers with players.

“No teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public,” said Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious rights group helping to represent Kennedy. “By taking this important case, the Supreme Court can protect the right of every American to engage in private religious expression, including praying in public, without fear of punishment.”

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of religious rights in several rulings in recent years.

Kennedy, who has said he was “not rehired,” sued in federal court in 2016. He sought a court order to be reinstated as coach, alleging religious discrimination and violations of his free speech.

Emphasizing the coach’s attempts to draw national attention to his challenge, the 9th Circuit said Kennedy was engaging in “public speech of an overtly religious nature” while on the job as a public employee. The school district would have violated the Constitution “by allowing Kennedy to pray at the conclusion of football games, in the center of the field, with students who felt pressured to join him,” the 9th Circuit added.

In arguments in another case last month, conservative Supreme Court justices appeared ready https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-again-tackles-public-funding-religious-schools-2021-12-08 to further expand public funding of religiously based entities in a case involving a Maine tuition assistance program that excludes private schools that promote religious beliefs.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

Former US president Donald Trump regularly called on Chanel Rion of OAN (pictured April 2020) during his press briefings

San Francisco (AFP) – Subscription television service DirecTV has decided not to renew its contract with One America News Network (OAN), an ultra-conservative, conspiratorial US channel that backs former US president Donald Trump.

“We informed (OAN owner) Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a spokesman for DirecTV told AFP Friday.

The deal is due to expire in April, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

DirecTV, which is owned by US telecom giant AT&T, did not provide further details for its decision. 

OAN is one of the new ultra-conservative players in television news that are trying to nibble away at the market share of Fox News. 

Like Newsmax or Real America’s Voice, they refused to recognize Donald Trump’s defeat in the November 2020 presidential election, instead relaying unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about electoral fraud that were propagated by the former president and his supporters.

In mid-November 2020, for instance, OAN presenter Christina Bobb accused the Democratic Party of preparing “a coup” against Trump.

Trump himself invited his supporters to switch to OAN and Newsmax, and more and more leading Republican figures are appearing on the channels. 

OAN saw its audiences climb in the wake of the election, but DirecTV’s decision is a serious blow because it is the channel’s largest distributor, according to US media. 

OAN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP. 

A year ago, when Trump supporters stormed Congress in an attempt to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, OAN and Newsmax denounced — without any supporting evidence — what they called the infiltration of small groups of ultra-leftists into the crowd of Trump loyalists.

Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will retain her royal title.

Sarah has continued to use the title Sarah, Duchess of York, despite her 1996 divorce from Andrew and although his military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen, there are no plans for Sarah to stop being referred to as a duchess.

A source told The Daily Mail’s Eden Confidential column: “That has been her title since the divorce and that is how it will stay.

“Andrew is still the Duke of York, so it is not an issue.”

It was revealed this week that the 61-year-old prince will no longer use ‘His Royal Highness’ in an official capacity and his roles will be given to other members of the royal family.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

This comes after it was confirmed that Prince Andrew will face a civil case in the US over allegations he sexually assaulted a woman when she was 17.

A federal court judge in New York City ruled that a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre can move forward.

Giuffre has accused convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – who died by suicide in August 2019 – and his one-time girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of arranging and forcing her into having sex with Prince Andrew in 2001, when she was 17.

Giuffre claims her alleged abuse at the hands of the pair involved being lent out to powerful men.

In December, Maxwell was convicted by a jury in US federal court on five sex trafficking-related counts, which carry a potential custodial sentence of up to 65 years’ imprisonment.

Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s allegations and his legal team recently argued to get her lawsuit dismissed, citing a 2009 deal and $500,000 settlement she agreed with Epstein.

However, the judge in New York recently ruled that the case could continue.

By Diane Bartz and Jonathan Stempel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday barred Martin Shkreli from the pharmaceutical industry for life and ordered him to pay $64.6 million after he famously raised the price of the drug Daraprim and fought to block generic competitors.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan ruled after a trial where the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and seven states had accused Shkreli, the founder of Vyera Pharmaceuticals, of using illegal tactics to keep Daraprim rivals out of the market.

Shkreli drew notoriety in 2015 after hiking Daraprim’s price overnight to $750 per tablet from $17.50. The drug treats toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that threatens people with weakened immune systems.

In a 130-page decision, Cote faulted Shkreli for creating two companies, Vyera and Retrophin Inc, designed to monopolize drugs so he could profit “on the backs” of patients, doctors and distributors.

She said the Daraprim scheme was “particularly heartless and coercive,” and a lifetime industry ban was needed because of the “real danger” that Shkreli could become a repeat offender.

“Shkreli’s anticompetitive conduct at the expense of the public health was flagrant and reckless,” the judge wrote. “He is unrepentant. Barring him from the opportunity to repeat that conduct is nothing if not in the interest of justice.”

After the ruling, FTC Chair Lina Khan tweeted the decision, calling it a “just outcome.”

Shkreli’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud. He did not attend the trial held last month.

Vyera was founded in 2014 as Turing Pharmaceuticals, and acquired Daraprim from Impax Laboratories Inc in 2015.

Regulators accused Vyera of protecting its dominance of Daraprim by ensuring that generic drugmakers could not obtain samples for cheaper versions, and keeping potential rivals from buying a key ingredient.

The seven states joining the FTC case included California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Jonathan Stempel; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late on Friday revised its guidance for Americans on wearing masks, recommending wearing “the most protective mask you can,” although the agency stopped short of calling for nationwide N95 usage.

The CDC clarified in its revised website “that people can choose respirators such as N95s and KN95s, including removing concerns related to supply shortages for N95s.” It added that Americans should “wear the most protective mask you can that fits well and that you will wear consistently.”

The CDC added “masking is a critical public health tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and it is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask.”

The revised recommendations “reflect the science on masking, including what we have learned in the past two years,” the CDC added.

The health agency added that “while all masks and respirators provide some level of protection, properly fitted respirators provide the highest level of protection.”

COVID-19 cases have surged and more Americans have been opting for higher-grade protection.

N95 masks that are worn correctly will filter out at least 95% of particulate matter in the air, preventing anything larger than 0.3 micron from passing through.

The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, shattering the global record for daily cases in any one country. Omicron is now estimated to account for 98.3% of total new cases circulating in the country, the CDC said.

Masks remain polarizing in the United States. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, this week again urged citizens to wear masks and noted that about one-third of Americans report they do not wear a mask at all. Many Republican-leaning states have no mask requirements while some liberal Democratic-controlled states like California have reimposed indoor mask mandates.

Senator Bernie Sanders reintroduced a bill dubbed the Masks for All Act on Wednesday which would send each person in the United States a pack of three N95 masks.

In late July, the CDC reversed course and said fully vaccinated Americans should wear masks in indoor public places in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly. The CDC says currently 99.5% of U.S. counties have high community spread and are covered by the mask recommendation.

In May, the CDC had announced that fully vaccinated people could shed their face coverings as COVID-19 was on the decline.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis)

By Andrea Shalal and Ann Saphir

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday nominated former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin for the Fed’s key regulatory post and two Black economists – Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson – to serve on its board in what would represent a landmark demographic overhaul of the world’s most powerful central bank.

The appointments – if confirmed by the Senate – would fill out the ranks of a seven-member panel that wields tremendous influence over the world’s largest economy, and would make the Fed’s top leadership the most diverse by race and gender in its 108-year history.

The appointments, which follow Biden’s earlier nominations of Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Fed chair and Governor Lael Brainard as vice chair, come as Biden’s own plans to reboot the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic have run into an unexpected spike in inflation. It presents an opportunity for him to leave a lasting imprint on a body that sets economic policies – particularly about interest rates – that reverberate across the globe.

“We are at a moment of historic economic progress alongside unique economic challenges as we work to drive our recovery forward,” Biden said in a statement. “This is a moment that calls for sound, independent leadership from the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve. That is why I am proud to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin, Lisa Cook, and Philip Jefferson, who will bring a breadth of knowledge, experience and expertise to the Board of Governors.”

The nominations drew immediate fire from the top Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, signaling a potentially rocky, and partisan, nomination process ahead in a legislative body that Democrats control only by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ dual role as president of the Senate.

“I have serious concerns” about Raskin, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said in statement, adding he believes she would try to keep banks from lending to oil and gas companies and otherwise stray from the two congressional mandates that steer the Fed’s core mission – maximum employment and price stability.

Toomey and other Republicans repeatedly queried Brainard, nominated to the Fed’s No. 2 role, about her support for climate risk research during her nomination hearing on Thursday https://www.reuters.com/world/us/feds-most-important-task-is-control-inflation-brainard-says-2022-01-13. He also signaled skepticism toward Cook and Jefferson, saying he will “closely examine” whether they have “the necessary experience, judgment, and policy views to serve as Fed Governors.”

MORE DIVERSE FED BOARD

Cook, a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, would be the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor. Jefferson, a professor and senior administrator at Davidson College in North Carolina, would be only the fourth Black man to sit on the panel and the first in more than 15 years.

Biden’s picks would mean the seven-member Board of Governors would include four women, also a first. Currently, the Fed’s board has only five members, all white, although that tally will fall to four – two men and two women – after Vice Chair Richard Clarida leaves the board on Friday as previously announced.

“It’s clearly a changing of the guard,” said Larry Katz, a professor at Harvard University. This is a “path-breaking new set of nominees who will bring important perspectives and representation to the board.”

Former Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke, who served with Raskin, told Reuters that Biden’s nominees will “inspire more and more diverse people to go into economics and to study the practice of economics.”

The effort to make the Fed look more like America comes at a critical time. Inflation is at its highest level in decades. Unemployment is down, but U.S. employers have 3.6 million fewer workers on their payrolls than they did before the coronavirus pandemic.

The Fed is debating how fast and how far to raise interest rates and otherwise tighten monetary policy to rein in inflation without short-circuiting the labor market.

Its current leadership has already signaled readiness to start raising rates as early as March, dialing back from an ultra-accommodative footing that could test financial markets and influence the pace of recovery during an election year in which control of Congress is on the line.

Leading the pivot is Powell, who appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday for his nomination hearing https://www.reuters.com/business/feds-powell-heads-hill-hearing-with-inflation-focus-2022-01-11. Biden nominated Brainard to replace Clarida as the central bank’s vice chair.

Progressives had favored more diverse picks to lead the Fed; the slate Biden put forward on Thursday helps meet that demand.

Raskin, who spent four years as a Fed governor before being tapped as a deputy Treasury secretary from 2014 to 2017, is expected to bring tougher oversight to bear on Wall Street than the Fed’s previous vice chair of supervision, Randal Quarles, who left the Fed at the end of last year.

Cook has written extensively about the economic consequences of racial disparities and gender inequality, and growing up lived through the violence of school desegregation in the U.S. South. Jefferson has written extensively on wages, poverty and income distribution.

Kevin Hassett, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Donald Trump, said Jefferson was an “incredibly smart economist” and serious academic who should be confirmed by the Senate quickly.

“He’s the kind of honorable, serious person the Federal Reserve should have.”

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Dan Burns, Leslie Adler and Paul Simao)

By Emilio Parodi

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy will use the nation’s sewage to predict future coronavirus spreads and to alert authorities to rising cases and new variants before they appear in testing and hospitals, a senior official said, announcing a project to be launched in coming months.

The new tool will be rolled out as governments look for new ways to track the virus to inform public health policy and to decide whether they have to take unpopular measures like restrictions that disrupt people’s lives and economies.

It could also be useful amid concerns about shortages of testing kits and labs being overwhelmed as the more infectious Omicron variant sweeps the world. Like many other countries, Italy is seeing surging https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/italy cases.

The tool will provide an early warning for future waves of infection and detect the presence and incidence of different variants, the co-head of wastewater monitoring at the National Health Institute (ISS), Giuseppina La Rosa, told Reuters this week.

She said she believes it will be ready in two or three months at the most.

Many countries, including Canada and the Netherlands have been monitoring coronavirus in wastewater since early on in the pandemic. The Global Water Pathogen Project keeps a database, called COVIDPoops19, of global data.

The challenge with developing predictive models of wastewater is that they have to take into account so many variables, including for example rainfall altering the content of the waste water, Luca Lucentini, director of Water Quality at the ISS, told Reuters.

“The great advantage of sewage monitoring is that it photographs the base of the pyramid, the whole population, whereas epidemiological surveillance covers those who are swabbed, that is only the top”, La Rosa said.

The programme has 166 sampling points throughout Italy and 60 laboratories. Cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants are sampled twice a week, and towns of 50,000 inhabitants or more once a week.

“When these models are ready in a short time, however, we will be able to intercept the trend in advance and to provide useful data for deciding on health policy measures to be taken,” La Rosa added.

This type of environmental screening may also identify less common variants that may escape surveillance through swabs, she said.

“Another thing we will definitely do is to go and re-screen the older samples we have in the archive, to see for example when Omicron actually arrived in Italy,” La Rosa added.

In 2020 the ISS showed the presence of the coronavirus in the wastewater of Milan and Turin in December 2019, which was around the time that China first alerted the world to the virus and which showed a much earlier arrival in Italy than previously thought.

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi; Editing by Josephine Mason and Frances Kerry)

Johnny Knoxville nearly put his penis “out of commission”.

The 50-year-old ‘Jackass Forever’ star – who is gearing up for the delayed release of the fourth big screen installment in the daredevil franchise – recalled how he once injured his “gym dog” while doing a stunt which saw him trying to flip a motorcycle, and left him with a catheter for more than three years.

He told Variety: “I broke my gym dog a number of years ago. That’s been well documented. So much has been said about so little.

“The doctor said a couple centimetres down and it would’ve been out of commission.”

However, the ‘Bad Grandpa’ star joked the birth of his two kids – son, Rocko, 12 and a daughter Arlo, 10, with his wife film director Naomi Nelson – proves everything is in “working order” now.

Johnny quipped: “But I’ve had two children since then, so it’s in great working order. That’s too much information.”

Johnny – who also has daughter Madison, 25, with his ex-wife Melanie Cates – has experienced multiple other injuries while filming on ‘Jackass’ – which initially launched on MTV in 2000 before moving to the big screen – including a broken wrist, broken rib, concussion and a brain haemorrhage.

The stunt man – whose only stunt in the whole movie features in the trailer and sees a bull knock him over – revealed his family don’t approve of his extreme behaviour.

He said: “My family doesn’t like me doing this type of thing. This is most wicked bull hit I’ve ever taken.”

Johnny has opted to take a back seat this time round and let the next generation take over, such as Zach Holmes, Rachel Wolfson and Eric Manaka.

He explained: “Those were big, and could end as badly or worse. I’ve done enough. I don’t have anything to prove. I have kids to raise. That’s the most important thing.”

The original show also featured the likes of skateboarder Bam Margera, Steve-O and many others, and Johnny admitted it was “heartbreaking” working on a film without the late Ryan Dunn, who died aged 34 in 2011.

He added: “It was a brutal loss for everyone and something that sticks with me and all of us to this day. My kids don’t know Ryan, and it breaks my heart.”

Meanwhile, Bam also doesn’t feature due to personal issues, as Johnny said: “We all love Bam. He’s our brother, you know? You just hope that he takes it upon himself to get the help that he needs, because we all care about him a lot.”

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -The Ohio Supreme Court on Friday struck down the state’s new congressional map for illegally favoring Republicans over Democrats and ordered lawmakers to redraw the lines.

The decision could have a significant impact on the battle for control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.

Electoral analysts had said the Republican-backed map would ensure the party won at least 12, and perhaps 13, of the state’s 15 congressional seats, in part by splitting Cincinnati’s county into multiple districts to dilute Democratic voting power there.

In a 4-3 decision, the state’s high court found that the map violated new provisions in the Ohio Constitution that were approved by voters in 2018, including language that prohibits any map that “favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents.”

“When the dealer stacks the deck in advance, the house usually wins,” Justice Michael Donnelly wrote for the majority. “That perhaps explains how a party that generally musters no more than 55 percent of the statewide popular vote is positioned to reliably win anywhere from 75 percent to 80 percent of the seats in the Ohio congressional delegation.”

The court’s three Democrats were joined in the majority by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican. Three Republican justices dissented from the decision, arguing that the court was encroaching on the authority of the legislature.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Editing by Franklin Paul and Alistair Bell)

Washington (AFP) – Russia has put in place operatives trained in explosives to carry out a “false-flag” operation to create a pretext to invade Ukraine, US officials alleged Friday.

The United States released intelligence findings the day after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Russia, which has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border, was “laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for an invasion.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said US intelligence believed Russia could begin the operations “several weeks” before a military invasion, which could start between mid-January and mid-February.

“We have information that indicates Russia has already prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine,” Psaki told reporters.

“The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces.”

Russia quickly denied the account, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the US statements “unfounded.”

But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the intelligence was “very credible” and that the classification had been downgraded to allow its release to the public.

He said that Russian operatives could include intelligence agents, military elements and other security services.

“They often hybridize their personnel to such a degree that the lines are not necessarily really clear,” Kirby told reporters.

Rise in disinformation

The allegations come as Ukraine was hit by a major cyberattack, which led NATO to vow to step up cooperation with Kyiv for online security.

Psaki said the United States was “concerned” by the attack, but stopped short of blaming Russia, saying there was not yet a finding on who was to blame.

Psaki said Russia, alongside its purported false-flag preparations, had ramped up a disinformation campaign on social media, including posts that accuse Ukraine of rights violations and the West of provoking tensions.

“Our information also indicates that Russian influence actors are already starting to fabricate Ukrainian provocations in state and social media to justify a Russian intervention and sow divisions in Ukraine,” she said.

The United States has repeatedly accused Russia of spreading conspiracies and disinformation on social media.

Psaki said Russian-language justifications for Moscow’s narratives on Ukraine on social media have jumped by 200 percent in December to nearly 3,500 posts per day.

Sullivan, in his briefing to reporters, said Russia had used similar tactics in 2014 when it seized Crimea and backed an ongoing insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

“We saw this playbook in 2014. They are preparing this playbook again,” Sullivan said.

The United States released the findings on the alleged false-flag plans after a week of talks with Russia to defuse tensions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied plans to invade Ukraine but has demanded security guarantees from the West, including promises not to expand NATO eastward.

Sullivan said Thursday that the United States preferred diplomacy but was prepared to “defend” allies and to impose major economic costs on Russia if it invades.

Russia stepped up its pressure on Ukraine in 2014 after an uprising toppled a government that had rejected pressure to move the country closer to the West.

More than 13,000 people have since died in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

By Tim Cocks

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -A Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine booster shot is 85% effective in protecting against being hospitalised by the Omicron variant for 1-2 months after it is received, the head of South Africa’s Medical Research Council (SAMRC) said on Friday.

Glenda Gray presented the findings of a SAMRC study at a South African health ministry briefing on the COVID-19 fourth wave, which has been driven by the new variant.

“We saw an 85% vaccine effectiveness and we saw that this kind of vaccine effectiveness is maintained for up to two months,” she said. “We are very happy to report very high levels of vaccine effectiveness against Omicron.”

The study involved 477,234 healthcare workers, all of them vaccinated with the J&J shot, of whom 236,000 — roughly half — had received the J&J booster shot.

It looked at hospitalisations among those healthcare workers who had been infected during the fourth wave, and found that the booster shot reduced hospitalisations by 63% in the first two weeks after the booster, going up to 85% after that for between one and two months.

“This is the world’s first evidence of vaccine effectiveness (against Omicron) using the J&J vaccine,” Gray said.

The South African authorities have thus far maintained a preference for the Pfizer vaccine — they have administered 21 million doses, three times as many as the roughly 7 million J&J vaccine doses.

But the J&J shot is considered logistically much more preferable because it is a single dose regimen, which is easier to administer in remote rural areas, where follow ups can be difficult.

The data supported already strong global evidence that Omicron can evade vaccine protection when it comes to the initial infection.

Among the participants in the study, there were about 30,000 breakthrough infections during the Omicron wave, compared with only around 11,000 each in the previous waves driven by the Delta and Beta variants.

The study also highlighted that those infected with HIV were more vulnerable to being hospitalised with Omicron.

“They (those being hospitalised) are more likely to have HIV and less likely to have other comorbidities as compared to the Beta and Delta period,” Gray said.

HIV prevalence in South Africa is about 13%.

A separate study by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD) on Friday suggested that Omicron may be cause less severe disease than previous variants, even among unvaccinated people.

(Editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman)

In the digital art world, immersive experiences are the order of the day. In museums around the world, visitors are being asked to don virtual reality headsets or explore exhibition spaces made of walls of LEDs responding to their movements.

Berlin is now doubling down on this interactive art trend with two exhibitions bringing big names into virtual worlds from January onwards. The focus is on French impressionist Claude Monet and Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.

Until March 15, “Monet’s Garden” in the city’s Alte Münze (Old Mint) aims to transport spectators into the Monet’s Impressionist world, all while exploring the halls of a historic city-centre coin mint where countless euros and marks were previously made.

The curators have designed three rooms in which parts of the artist’s famous garden and house in Giverny near Paris have been virtually – and literally – recreated.

The digital elements and animations, borrowed from and influenced by Monet’s famous paintings, come together into one large art work space.

Also in Berlin, the “Genius Immersive Experience” exhibition is setting its sights on the works of da Vinci from January 28 to March 31.

Organizers say the inventions and ideas of the painter, sculptor, architect, anatomist, mechanic and engineer can be discovered in an entirely new way in large light-filled spaces where visitors are surrounded on all sides by sounds and visuals.

By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses – a policy the conservative justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans – while endorsing a separate federal vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities.

Biden voiced disappointment with the conservative-majority court’s decision to halt his administration’s rule requiring vaccines or weekly COVID-19 tests for employees at businesses with at least 100 employees. Biden said it now is up to states and employers to decide whether to require workers “to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated.”

The court was divided in both cases, centering on pandemic-related federal regulations at a time of escalating coronavirus infections driven by the Omicron variant in a nation that leads the world with more than 845,000 COVID-19 deaths.

It ruled 6-3, with the six conservative justices in the majority and three liberal justices dissenting, in blocking the rule involving large businesses – a policy that applied to more than 80 million employees. The court’s majority downplayed the risk COVID-19 specifically poses in the workplace, comparing it instead to “day-to-day” crime and pollution hazards that individuals face everywhere.

The vote was 5-4 to allow the healthcare worker rule, which requires vaccination for about 10.3 million workers at 76,000 healthcare facilities including hospitals and nursing homes that accept money from the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs for elderly, disabled and low-income Americans. Two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined the liberals in the majority in that case.

In a statement, Biden said the court’s decision allowing the healthcare worker mandate “will save lives” and his administration will enforce it. Workers must be vaccinated by the end of February.

The court heard arguments last Friday in the legal fight over temporary mandates issued in November by two federal agencies aimed at increasing U.S. vaccination rates and making workplaces and healthcare settings safer. The cases tested presidential powers to address a swelling public health crisis.

In an unsigned ruling, the court said the rule affecting large businesses, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was not an ordinary use of federal power.

“It is instead a significant encroachment on the lives – and health – of a vast number of employees,” the court said.

“Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life -simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock – would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization,” the court added.

Challengers led by the state of Ohio and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which represents employers, asked the justices to block OSHA’s rule after a lower court lifted an injunction against it. Companies were supposed to start showing they were in compliance starting this past Monday.

In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote on behalf of the liberal justices that the decision “stymies the federal government’s ability to counter the unparalleled threat that COVID-19 poses to our nation’s workers.”

‘WELCOME RELIEF’

“Today’s decision is welcome relief for America’s small businesses, who are still trying to get their business back on track since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Karen Harned, executive director of the NFIB’s legal arm.

The high court blocked a Dec. 17 decision by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had allowed the mandate to go into effect.

In the healthcare facilities case, the court’s differently comprised majority concluded that the regulation “fits neatly” within the power Congress conferred on the government to impose conditions on Medicaid and Medicare funds, which includes policies that protect health and safety.

“After all, ensuring that providers take steps to avoid transmitting a dangerous virus to their patients is consistent with the fundamental principle of the medical profession: first, do no harm,” the court said.

Four conservative justices dissented from the healthcare facility decision, concluding that Congress had not given the federal agency the authority to require vaccinations for millions of healthcare workers. In one dissent, Justice Samuel Alito doubted that the agency can “put more than 10 million healthcare workers to the choice of their jobs or an irreversible medical treatment.”

The justices lifted orders by federal judges in Missouri and Louisiana blocking the policy in 24 states, allowing the administration to enforce it nearly nationwide. Enforcement was blocked in Texas by a lower court in separate litigation not at issue before the Supreme Court.

Gerald Harmon, president of the American Medical Association physicians group, said that although he is pleased the court allowed the healthcare worker mandate, the broader workplace rule is also needed.

“Workplace transmission has been a major factor in the spread of COVID-19,” Harmon added. “Now more than ever, workers in all settings across the country need commonsense, evidence-based protections against COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death.”

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung; Additional reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Will Dunham)

(Reuters) – Here are excerpts of communications that Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, had with his allies in the run-up to and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to prosecutors, who on Thursday charged him and 10 alleged members of the group with seditious conspiracy.

NOVEMBER 2020

The indictment says Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, started disseminating messages on encrypted applications to his followers in November 2020, encouraging them to “oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power.”

On Nov. 5, two days after the election, he sent a message on the Signal message service that read: “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind body, spirit.”

DECEMBER 2020

On Dec. 11, Rhodes sent a message to an invitation-only group chat on Signal, telling them that if Democrat Joe Biden took over the presidency “it will be a bloody and desperate fight. We are going to have a fight. That can’t be avoided.’

On Christmas Day, Rhodes wrote that Congress would likely “screw” then-President Donald Trump over and the only chance he has is if “we scare the shit out of them and convince them it will be torches and pitchforks…”

JAN. 6, 2021

Just before 1:30 p.m. on the day of the attack Rhodes told people in the Signal chat: Vice President Mike “Pence is doing nothing. As I predicted.”

He added: “All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They’ve had enough.”

Rhodes told people that those who gathered at the Capitol were not members of antifa, the loosely organized anti-fascism movement. Asked by an associate who was in the mobs storming the Capitol, Rhodes replied: “Actual Patriots. Pissed off patriots. Like the Sons of Liberty were pissed off patriots.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, compiled by Costas Pitas; Editing by Scott Malone)