US scientists say users of sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – are 69% less likely to develop the form of dementia than non-users
Viagra could be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a US study.
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of age-related dementia, affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite mounting numbers of cases, however, there is currently no effective treatment.
Continue reading...Thomas Massie’s incendiary picture, days after a deadly school shooting in Michigan, seemed carefully calibrated to provoke
It is a festive family photo with seven broad smiles and a Christmas tree. But one other detail sets it apart: each member of the Massie family is brandishing a machine gun or military-style rifle.
The photo was tweeted last week by Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, with the caption: “Merry Christmas! PS: Santa, please bring ammo.”
Continue reading...Official says Washington would also impose economic measures in warning to Moscow on eve of talks between Biden and Putin
The US has said it would send reinforcements to Nato’s eastern flank in response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as imposing severe new economic measures, in a warning to Moscow on the eve of talks between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
Biden will also make clear to Putin that the US will not rule out future Ukrainian membership of Nato, as the Russian leader has demanded, a senior US official said.
Continue reading...Analysis: furore continues over ‘Christmas card’ by US Congressman of group holding military weapons
It is the Christmas card that has sent shockwaves across the world – and provided a chilling reminder of the size and type of weapons that are perfectly legal to own and carry in large parts of the US.
An analysis by the Guardian indicates the guns in the photograph published by the Republican congressman Thomas Massie are military grade and – in some cases – similar to those used in recent notorious deadly incidents.
Continue reading...Singer discusses health difficulties in rare public speech as she accepts Kennedy Center award
Joni Mitchell addressed her health difficulties in a rare public speech as she accepted her Kennedy Center Honor, one of the most prestigious awards in American cultural life.
At a ceremony attended by Joe Biden – in a show of support for the arts after the awards were snubbed by Donald Trump – Mitchell discussed the issues she’s faced in the wake of an aneurysm in 2015 that left her temporarily unable to walk or talk.
Continue reading...High commissioner says Omicron is mild variant and travel ban not necessary; fully vaccinated traveller to Argentina had tested negative on departure and arrival
The Johnson & Johnson booster shot may work well for those who originally had a Pfizer vaccine, a recent study has found.
Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston studied 65 people who had received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine. Six months after the second dose, the researchers gave 24 of the volunteers a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine and gave 41 the Johnson & Johnson shot.
Continue reading...Fauci says Republican ‘overhyping’ claim on Covid is ‘preposterous’. Plus, Trump attacks the media again
Good morning.
Dismissing as “preposterous” a Republican senator’s claim he is “overhyping” Covid-19 as he did HIV and Aids, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday the threat to the US from the Omicron variant remained to be determined – but that signs were encouraging.
What did Fauci say about Johnson? “Overhyping Aids? It’s killed over 750,000 Americans and 36 million people worldwide. How do you overhype Covid? It’s already killed 780,000 Americans and over 5 million people worldwide. So, I don’t have any clue of what he’s talking about.”
How bad is the spread of Omicron? The variant has been detected in 15 US states. Fauci was cautiously optimistic current vaccines might work against it.
What do Americans think about overturning Roe v Wade? According to recent polling, seven in 10 are opposed to overturning the landmark ruling while 59% believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances.
Continue reading...Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP among group of 24 who resisted calls to increase production but doled out shareholder dividends
The largest oil and gas companies made a combined $174bn in profits in the first nine months of the year as gasoline prices climbed in the US, according to a new report.
The bumper profit totals, provided exclusively to the Guardian, show that in the third quarter of 2021 alone, 24 top oil and gas companies made more than $74bn in net income. From January to September, the net income of the group, which includes Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP, was $174bn.
Continue reading...President given standing ovations at performing arts awards snubbed by Donald Trump
“Tonight it is quite nice, very nice to see the presidential box once again being occupied,” David Letterman said to knowing applause. “And the same with the Oval Office.”
The comedian was introducing the 44th Kennedy Center Honors, where Joe Biden restored tradition merely with his presence after four years in which the annual gala was snubbed by then president Donald Trump and upended by the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Many Americans’ mental health has suffered during the pandemic, and anxiety and depression persists
Sarah Isaacs, a therapist in Raleigh, North Carolina, sees mostly clients between the ages of 22 and 30, many of whom missed out on the usual dating and networking because of the Covid pandemic.
“They literally haven’t been able to do anything for two years,” said Isaacs, who specializes in working with people with eating disorders and people who identify as LGBTQ+.
Continue reading...The Sex and the City star is back for the reboot, And Just Like That … He talks about bereavement, rebellion, the fun of acting – and the absence of Kim Cattrall
“I’m not supposed to talk for this long. I told my publicist beforehand: ‘I need to keep this short so I don’t give quotes I’ll regret,’” chuckles Chris Noth.
Too late for that. Ahead of our interview, I had expected Noth – best known as Mr Big from Sex and the City – to be a reluctant interviewee, because that’s how he came across in past articles, especially when he was talking about the TV show that turned him from a jobbing actor into, well, Mr Big. But those were from back in the day, when he bridled at his sudden celebrity. Noth had been in hit TV shows before, most famously when he played Detective Mike Logan for five years on Law & Order. But nothing could have prepared him for Sex and the City.
Continue reading...Insults to press and chairman of joint chiefs of staff recall barbs while Trump was in power
In remarks to diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday night, Donald Trump called the American media “crooked bastards” and Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a “fucking idiot”.
The meandering, foul-mouthed speech to Turning Point USA, a group for young conservatives, was streamed by Jack Posobiec, a rightwing blogger and provocateur.
Continue reading...Lawyer says accuser came forward after New York’s AG office showed Cuomo took much more active role in helping brother
Chris Cuomo was hit with a new allegation of sexual harassment days before CNN announced it was firing him amid an investigation into work he did defending his brother from similar harassment allegations.
An attorney, Debra Katz, said on Sunday her client alleged “serious sexual misconduct” by Cuomo and had contacted CNN about the allegation on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Bob Dole, the long-time Kansas senator who was the Republican nominee for president in 1996, has died. He was 98.
In a statement, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation – founded by Dole’s wife, a former North Carolina senator and cabinet official – said: “It is with heavy hearts we announced that Senator Robert Joseph Dole died earlier this morning in his sleep. At his death at age 98 he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years.”
Continue reading...Iran’s natural allies are said to have been surprised by how much it had gone back on its own compromises
The US is hoping pressure from Russia, China and some Arab Gulf states may yet persuade Iran to moderate its negotiating stance in regards to the steps the Biden administration must take before both sides return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Talks in Vienna faltered badly last week, when the new hardline Iranian administration increased its levels of uranium enrichment and tabled proposals that US officials said at the weekend were “not serious”since they had gone back on all the progress made in the previous round of talks.
Continue reading...Congressman causes outrage by posting ‘insensitive’ tweet just days after Michigan school shooting
A US congressman has posted a Christmas picture of himself and what appears to be his family, smiling and posing with an assortment of guns, just days after four teenagers were killed in a shooting at a high school in Michigan.
Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”
Continue reading...Covid-19 is unlikely to be eradicated, experts say, but societies in the past have learned to live with diseases
First, the bad news. With unpredictable outbreaks still occurring around the world, and variants like Omicron raising questions about the virus’s contagiousness, we are very much still in a pandemic.
The good news: while it’s difficult to predict the exact timing, most scientists agree that the Covid-19 pandemic will end and that the virus will become endemic. That means the virus will probably never be eliminated entirely, but as more people get vaccinated and become exposed to it, infections will eventually arise at a consistently low rate, and fewer people will become severely ill. An area where vaccination and booster rates are high will probably see endemicity sooner than a region with lower rates.
Continue reading...Analysis: after he promised to crush the coronavirus, the rise of a new strain could be a blow to perceptions of his competency
Joe Biden looked out at an audience of government scientists last week and recognized a mask-wearing Anthony Fauci, his top adviser on the coronavirus. “I’ve seen more of Dr Fauci than my wife,” he joked. “Who’s president? Fauci!”
The US president was visiting the frontline of the Covid-19 struggle, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where he unveiled a winter plan that includes a drive for vaccine boosters, free at-home testing and fresh requirements for international travelers.
Continue reading...A short history of the Rose decision’s emergence as a signature cause for the right
Public opinion on abortion in the US has changed little since 1973, when the supreme court in effect legalized the procedure nationally in its ruling on the case Roe v Wade. According to Gallup, which has the longest-running poll on the issue, about four in five Americans believe abortion should be legal, at least in some circumstances.
Yet the politics of abortion have opened deep divisions in the last five decades, which have only grown more profound in recent years of polarization. In 2021, state legislators have passed dozens of restrictions to abortion access, making it the most hostile year to abortion rights on record.
Continue reading...Analysis: The task of Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense may be to tangle her so deeply in Epstein’s shadow that they cannot find her guilty
The graphic testimony presented to jurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal sex abuse trial last week seemed at times to mesh and then detach from broader theories – criminal, conspiratorial or both – about the nature of Jeffrey Epstein’s world.
Whether prosecutors and defense attorneys are successful in separating criminal conspiracy from the conspiracy theories that run through the entire Epstein-Maxwell narrative may determine how the criminal complaint against the 59-year-old former British socialite is ultimately resolved.
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