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(CNN) -- Donald Trump is expected back in a New York courthouse this week as he splits his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom with the 2024 presidential primary season officially underway. The former president will be back on trial beginning Tuesday in Manhattan federal court for a jury to determine how much he will pay in damages for defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2019 statements he made denying her rape allegations. This is the second trial over Carroll’s allegations that Trump raped her in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996. In the first trial, a jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll and awarded her $5 million for his statements in 2022 attacking her and denying the allegations. ... The defamatory statements at issue in this trial were made in June 2019, when Trump was president. Trump said in part, “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” (more) https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/16/politics/trump-e-jean-carroll-what-to-watch/index.html

Vivek Ramaswamy dropping out of presidential race following Iowa caucuses Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is suspending his presidential campaign, ending his bid for the Republican nomination after coming in fourth in the Iowa caucuses. "As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign," Ramaswamy told his supporters and reporters. Ramaswamy said he's offered former President Donald Trump his full endorsement, and said he would appear with Trump on Tuesday. CBS News projects Trump will win the Iowa caucuses. The news follows a lackluster performance in the Iowa caucuses and a failure to maintain the short-lived momentum he had garnered in the summer after the second Republican debate. (more) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vivek-ramaswamy-drops-out-2024-presidential-race-iowa-caucuses/

Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith defy prime minister by supporting rightwing challenges to legislation Rishi Sunak is facing a Conservative meltdown over the Rwanda deportation bill after two deputy chairs said they would support rebel amendments aimed at blocking international human rights laws. Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have defied the prime minister by backing rightwing challenges to the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Tuesday. They will join as many as 70 other MPs said to be considering abstaining or opposing the controversial legislation. The high-profile rebellion on Monday evening of two “red wall” MPs will be regarded as a direct threat to Sunak’s authority. The prime minister will now have to contemplate sacking them from their party jobs. (more) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/15/sunak-faces-tory-meltdown-as-deputy-chairs-back-rwanda-bill-rebellion

A cold spell fuelled by wintry Arctic air is set to continue throughout Tuesday and into the week ahead. Met Office yellow warnings for snow and ice are in place for Scotland, Northern Ireland, much of northern England and north Wales throughout the day. Temperatures fell below freezing across the UK overnight as biting winds continued to blow in from the north. Travel disruption is likely, especially in north-west England and Scotland. (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67986072

Experts have warned new Covid-19 variant Juno will surge as children go back to school More than 7,000 hospital admissions and deaths in the UK could have been avoided in summer 2022 if people had received all their Covid jabs, research shows. Experts found that between a third and a half of people had not had the recommended number of Covid vaccinations and boosters by 1 June, 2022: almost 27 million people in England alone. ... According to the findings, if the UK had been fully vaccinated in June 2022, there might have been 210 fewer five- to 15-year-olds being hospitalised or dying due to severe Covid illness; 1544 fewer 16- to 71-year-olds; and 5426 fewer over-75-year-olds. (more) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/vaccination-covid-deaths-uk-b2478783.html

A series of off-topic posts have been removed. The topic here is Yemen and Iran-related, not Afghanistan or other forum members.

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Another post with an unsourced and unsubstantiated claim has been removed. There is some scientific debate on the comparative protection levels conferred by COVID vaccines vs. the protections from prior COVID infections (which carry with them the health risks of having COVID). But I'm not aware of any credible research that suggests merely being healthy alone provides equal or greater protection against contracting COVID. Being generally healthy has been shown to somewhat lessen, but not eliminate, the risks of serious outcomes once someone contracts COVID.

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This 2022 topic by now is out-of-date, and therefore to avoid any further confusion, it is now CLOSED. //

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Also, a Spotify premium music streaming subscription is much cheaper if subscribed via a TH IP than a U.S. IP, and I'd assume the same for a UK IP -- even though the available content is the same.

So if u read the full meandering, tortured article above, what becomes clear is the Cabinet gave a policy direction vs actually approving a real plan. No date for implementation or what if anything tourists will need to do to gain coverage. All of that is now dumped into the lap of the Tourism ministry to work out the details and launch an actual insurance cover program, sometime, who knows when. Right now, there remains NONE!

This is a good website that displays AQI data from both the government pollution monitors and those maintained by private parties... Pick the closest up-to-date monitor to you on the map. Then for each monitoring site, it shows the latest hourly readings and hourlies for the past couple days. https://aqicn.org/station/thailand-chiang-mai-สถาบันนโยบายสาธารณะ-มช.-ต.สุเทพ-อ.เมือง-จ.เชียงใหม่/#/z/14

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December 10, 2023 "Doctors and pharmacists are seeing a surge in requests for COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the Christmas break amid concerns about higher rates of the virus and visiting vulnerable loved ones. Indicators such as sewage monitoring, test positivity rates and hospital activity suggest the virus has been circulating at higher levels since the start of November. ... Dr Fei Sim, a Perth pharmacist and national president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, said pharmacies across the country were reporting an increase in vaccine appointments coming up to Christmas." (more) https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-keep-throwing-vaccines-out-i-d-rather-get-them-into-arms-20231207-p5epru.html Note: the headline in the above Sydney Morning Herald report is a reference to the fact that the prior bivalent Moderna vaccines ordered by Australia are due to expire on December 20. The Australian government has approved use of the newest monovalent COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna targeting the more recent XBB.1.5 COVID variant, and those doses are expected to become available in the coming week, per the SMH.

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