USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions more Americans can get a COVID-19 booster and choose a different company’s vaccine for that next shot, federal health officials said Thursday.

Certain people who received Pfizer vaccinations months ago already are eligible for a booster and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says specific Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients qualify, too. And in a bigger change, the agency is allowing the flexibility of “mixing and matching” that extra dose regardless of which type people received first.

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States has barred imports from a Malaysian latex glove maker over alleged labour abuses, the latest firm from the country to face such a ban.

   The relatively affluent Southeast Asian nation is home to millions of migrant workers employed in manufacturing and agriculture, but critics say they are often mistreated.

   US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the ban on Supermax gloves on Wednesday, after a probe found indications of forced labour in the firm’s manufacturing operations.

SAN JOSE, Oct 21 (NNN-TELESUR) — Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) and the Canadian Forest Fire Interagency Center (CIFFC) signed a plan to strengthen their partnership in forest fire management.

“It is of the utmost importance for Costa Rica to have established this agreement with Canada, which is a world leader in prevention and control of forest fires,” the SINAC Director Rafael Gutierrez stated. 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will launch a new media company with its own social media platform, nine months after he was barred from Twitter and Facebook.

The new company, called Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) and chaired by Trump, will become a publicly listed company after its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., and will soon launch a social network named "TRUTH Social," according to a press release by the TMTG.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to a new low point since the pandemic erupted, evidence that layoffs are declining as companies hold onto workers.

Unemployment claims dropped 6,000 to 290,000 last week, the third straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the fewest people to apply for benefits since March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified. Applications for jobless aid, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily from about 900,000 in January.

20 Oct 2021; MEMO: Almost half of the 53,000 Afghan refugees that have arrived in the US and are living at military facilities are children, according to a report published Thursday, and as reported by Anadolu News Agency.

The disclosure was made in a letter from Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, to lawmakers that was obtained by the Wall Street Journal newspaper. The letter was sent in response to queries from Senator James Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman after she called 911 to report a possible rape happening behind her home will be sentenced on a lesser charge Thursday after his murder conviction was overturned in a case that drew global attention and was fraught with the issue of race.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A group of environmental organizations demanded Wednesday that the Biden administration suspend and cancel oil and gas leases in federal waters off the California coast after a recent crude oil spill.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House is expected to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. It’s up to the Justice Department, and the courts, to determine what happens next.

As lawmakers ready a Thursday vote to send a contempt referral to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, there’s considerable uncertainty about whether the Justice Department will prosecute Bannon for refusing to cooperate with the investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection, despite Democratic demands for action.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — In an abrupt change, the White House on Wednesday floated new plans to pay for parts of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social services and climate change package, shelving a proposed big increase in corporate tax rates though also adding a new billionaires’ tax on the investment gains of the very richest Americans.