Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Shooters at large after 6 teenagers shot in downtown Chattanooga: Police
Two victims are "very, very critical," the Chattanooga police chief said

Six teenagers were shot and wounded, two critically, Saturday night when multiple people opened fire in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, during a confrontation between two large groups of young people, authorities said.

Chattanooga police officers were patrolling the downtown area at about 10:58 p.m. local time when they heard the gunshots and immediately responded to help those who were injured, Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy said during a news conference on Sunday.

"The officers observed multiple parties fire and then they observed multiple victims who had been hit by the gunfire," Murphy said.

She said the officers immediately began rendering aid to the wounded and helping other juveniles get out of harm's way.

Murphy said all six victims who were struck by gunfire were teenagers. She said four of the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries and two remain "very, very critical."

The chief said no arrests have been made.

She said one person was detained as a person of interest but has since been ruled out as a suspect.

Murphy said investigators are combing through security video to try and identify suspects and determine what motivated the violence.

"They've been able to determine two groups were beginning to converge on one another in what appears to have been some type of altercation," Murphy said.

She said two armed individuals from one group started firing upon the other group. She said only one of the people in the group being fired on was the intended target and "all the other victims that were shot were unintended" targets.

"At this time it does not seem to be any connection to anything gang-related. That's not been officially ruled out, but there's nothing indicating that at this time," Murphy said.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly called the shooting "outrageous."

"It's ridiculous that I even need to publicly state that guns have no place in the hands of our kids, and that children should not be wandering around at night without supervision," Kelly said.

The mayor praised the police who "acted quickly and decisively" to prevent more bloodshed.

"We're fortunate that they were able to respond as quickly as they did," Kelly said. "But the job of preventing kids from shooting each other cannot fall to the brave men and women of our police department."

He said easy access to illegal guns is "killing kids, and our community has a responsibility to put a stop to it."

"Parents also need to be responsible," Kelly said. "If you know your kid has access to a firearm, you must intervene before someone, perhaps even your own child, ends up dead."

He implored parents and caregivers to get actively involved in knowing where their children are at night and what they are doing.

Kelly said that in coming weeks, he plans to work with the city council to establish places in the city for juveniles to gather safely and also invest in youth mentorship and violence prevention programs.

"If you know a child, especially your child, has access to a firearm, you have a moral duty to intervene or call the police," Kelly said.

He added, "As a parent, you are civilly and criminally liable for the violent acts of your child that you could have stopped."

He said he is working with the police department and the local district attorney "to enforce existing laws that hold parents accountable for knowingly providing or allowing children access to guns that result in violence."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/multiple-people-shoot-tennessee-police/story?id=85048571

[Rick Plant]

Kansas police shoot pregnant Black woman five times despite having her hands up: witness



A Black pregnant woman was shot five times by Kansas City police despite having her hands up, according to a witness.

KCTV first reported that Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Friday. Highway Patrol said that officers in the Kansas Police Department spotted a vehicle at a Family Dollar that was suspected of being stolen.

A witness named Shédanja later told The Kansas City StarThe Kansas City Star that she had seen the shooting and recorded a video of the aftermath.

The Star reported:

The woman exited the car with her hands up, Shédanja said. Officers told the woman to get on the ground, but the woman told them she was pregnant, Shédanja said, and couldn’t get down on the ground. Police asked her to get down multiple times. The woman then told police there was a gun in the vehicle. The woman started backing toward a fence in the parking lot. Several officers approached her and had their weapons drawn, Shédanja said.

“She did not pull out a weapon on them,” Shédanja recalled. “She did not even have a stick in her hand.”

The witness can also be heard narrating in a video she recorded at the scene.

"They got her in handcuff while they shot her, y'all," Shédanja says in the video. "I stopped here to get some gas, y'all, and my son just watched this [shooting]. My one-year-old son just watched this! My 10-year-old son just watched this! And my 13-year-old son just watched this happen!"

"She was fixing to cooperate," she added. "She ran and they shot her. One, two, three, four!"

A spokesperson for the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that a gun "was located" at the scene but he would not say if the gunshot victim was holding it.

"How the sequence of events transpired, there's going to be intricate details of events that transpired, right?" the officer said.

Watch the video clips below:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1531319190447079425

https://twitter.com/i/status/1530389526174220289

https://twitter.com/i/status/1530391731895775233

[Rick Plant]

Nasal COVID-19 vaccines help the body prepare for infection right where it starts – in your nose and throat



Imagine inhaling just a few drops of liquid or mist to get protected from COVID-19. That is the idea behind nasal COVID-19 vaccines, and they have been getting a lot of attention recently as a spray or liquid. These nasal vaccines would be based on the same technology as normal vaccines given by injection. But as Mayuresh Abhyankar, a University of Virginia researcher who studies infectious diseases and works on nasal vaccines, explains, vaccinating someone right where the coronavirus is likely to start its attack comes with many immunological benefits.

1. What are nasal vaccines?

Nasal vaccines are administered, as the name suggests, through the nose. More accurately called intranasal vaccines, these vaccines are liquids that can be given as a spray or through a dropper or syringe. The most common nasal vaccine is FluMist, a nasal spray that uses inactivated flu virus to protect against influenza. An intranasal vaccine could be a weakened live virus similar to FluMist, a nucleic acid vaccine like mRNA coronavirus vaccines or a protein vaccine like Hepatitis B vaccines or the CorbeVax coronavirus vaccine.

Intranasal vaccines are best suited to protect against pathogens that enter through the nose, like the flu or the coronavirus. By mimicking the first step of natural exposure to an airborne pathogen, these vaccines help train a person’s immune system at the potential place of infection. Scientists have shown that the first immune response in the respiratory tract after a person is exposed to an airborne virus can influence how sick a person gets. So in theory, intranasal vaccines could provide better protection than vaccines given through a shot in the arm.

2. How does the coronavirus infect people?



Nasal vaccines differ from intramuscular vaccines because they mimic the mechanism of infection and trigger a stronger immune response in the throat and nose specifically.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, usually enters the body through the nose and lands on the mucus membrane at the back of the nasal passage and in the throat. The virus then enters the cells it touches, replicates and spreads.

Just underneath these cells of the mucus membrane are many types of immune cells that form what is called the mucosal immune system. Cells of the mucosal immune system are the first to identify invading coronavirus particles and start mounting a protective response.

In an unvaccinated individual, it takes about two weeks for these immune cells to build up a protective response after encountering the coronavirus. By that time, the virus can easily have infected other body parts, like the lungs, which can lead to severe disease.

Nasal vaccines follow a lot of the same steps. When you inhale a nasal vaccine, the particles land on the mucus membrane in your nasal cavity or the back of your throat, enter the cells in those places and trigger an immune response. This process teaches the body about the coronavirus and allows it to deal with any future real infections.

3. How are nasal and intramuscular vaccines different?

When you get a COVID-19 shot in your arm, the vaccine triggers a strong immune response in the cells near where you got the shot. It also causes your immune system to produce some coronavirus-specific antibodies and other immune cells in other locations throughout your body.

When the coronavirus begins infecting cells in a person’s respiratory tract, the immune cells nearby will start mounting a defense. Your body will also send anti-viral immune cells and antibodies from other locations to the site of infection. But by the time enough coronavirus-specific immune cells gather around the infection site to stop the virus from replicating, the virus has likely already begun to spread throughout the body, making it difficult for the immune system to keep up.

Nasal vaccines mimic the virus in order to prepare the immune system against a virus, just like any other vaccine. But importantly, they mimic the process of infection, too, and boost protective response within the mucosal immune system of the nose and throat. In simple terms, intranasal vaccines are like knowing there is going to be a break-in and putting your guards in the right location before the trouble even starts.

The science bears this idea out. In a head-to-head comparison, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided greater protection in hamsters that were vaccinated intranasally compared to those vaccinated intramuscularly.

Nasal vaccination could also be used in concert with intramuscular immunization. In a recent study, my colleagues and I gave some mice both a nasal and intramuscular vaccine and exposed them to a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2 – 100% of these mixed-vaccinated mice survived, compared to only 10% of the unvaccinated mice. We are now testing if this mixed approach is superior to just intranasal or just intramuscular approaches on their own.

Finally, intranasal vaccines are painless, noninvasive and do not require specialized training to use.

Nasal vaccines, like the liquid flu vaccine the nurse is giving to a patient here, are easier to administer and don’t require needles, but it can be harder to make sure the full dose is absorbed.

4. What are the risks of nasal vaccines?

Getting the dosage correct can be harder with nasal vaccines than a shot, especially with young children. If someone has a stuffy nose or sneezes out a part of the vaccine before it’s completely absorbed, this can result in a lower-than-desired dose.

There are some unique health risks too. All vaccines go through rigorous safety testing and clinical trials, but these processes are especially important for nasal vaccines due to the simple fact that the nose is close to the brain. In 2000, 27.7% of people who received an inactivated intranasal influenza vaccine in Switzerland developed transient facial paralysis – also known as Bell’s palsy. Later, researchers found that a bacterial toxin added to the vaccine to enhance the immune response was the culprit.

This is the only reported instance of neurological issues stemming from intranasal vaccines, but it is something to consider.

5. How long until intranasal COVID-19 vaccines are ready?

As of late May 2022, there are no approved COVID-19 intranasal vaccines for human use. There are currently seven in clinical trials, and three of them – manufactured by Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, Bharat Biotech, and Codagenix and Serum Institute of India – are in phase-3 human trials.

In the coming months, the results of these trials will not only show how safe these promising new vaccines are, but also if they perform better than the vaccines in use today.

https://theconversation.com/nasal-covid-19-vaccines-help-the-body-prepare-for-infection-right-where-it-starts-in-your-nose-and-throat-183790

[Rick Plant]

Republicans like to pretend that inflation only exists in the United States as they lie about "Biden policies created inflation" when inflation is happening globally due to the pandemic and now Putin's war in Ukraine. Inflation is lower in the United States than compared to countries like the UK and in Europe. So the rule of thumb is to ignore the lies and the right wing propaganda and stick to the facts.

High UK inflation hastens 'real living wage' announcement
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/high-uk-inflation-hastens-real-living-wage-announcement-2022-05-29/

[Rick Plant]

Record inflation in Germnay is higher than the United States. Are right wing Republicans going to blame Biden for record high German inflation?

The fact is global inflation is high in just about every single country. Republicans want to pretend it's only happening in the United States where it is much lower than other advanced nations.     

Cost of budget pasta, bread and beef mince surges; German inflation near 50-year high– as it happened
Latest: German inflation highest since 1970s oil shock
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/may/30/oil-prices-eu-russia-ban-embargo-summit-pound-inflation-energy-ftse-100-business-live

[Rick Plant]

High UK Gas Prices Could Persist Through 2025

High gas prices will persist for the next three years, warned investment bank Stifel, as millions of households struggle with the cost of living crisis.

Supply chain disruption and spiraling liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices will provide a lethal combination for the UK energy industry, amid global volatility, with gas prices expected to remain as high as 75 pence per therm in 2025.

While this is considerably below the £8 per therm peak recorded in March this year, it is also elevated from the 47p per therm price recorded this time last year prior to the energy crisis.

Commenting on commodity markets, Stifel analyst Chris Wheaton said: “We see energy markets remaining tighter than previously expected into 2024/2025; for oil, we increase our long-term oil price assumptions from $65 per barrel to $70 per barrel for 2024 onwards, reflecting higher longer-term risks to supply. We also now expect high UK gas prices to persist into 2025.” 

Wheaton outlined the firm’s views in an investment note, ‘UK Energy and Power‘, where he explained that the UK would be unable to insulate itself from the market effects of global shortages of LNG, even with a significant domestic North Sea oil and gas industry.



With markets being global, LNG shortages would continue to plague domestic prices, even if the supplies were more crucial to European allies, with geopolitical factors being a significant “risk premium.”

He explained: “The global LNG industry has been struggling with uptime and the ability to produce the LNG its  customers need – a combination of issues with maintenance on aging fleet of liquefaction capacity, but  also decline of supply of natural gas feedstock after years of under-investment.”

“Global uptime for the industry in 2021 was 68 percent, below historical averages, and once Qatar and US production volumes are  stripped out (both of which have high uptime vs global averages), the rest of the industry, about two-thirds of global liquefaction capacity, was running at only 50 percent uptime, which illustrates the problem the  LNG industry has in supplying its customers.”

The European Union (EU) has committed to raising storage capacity levels to 80 percent ahead of this winter, but terminals remain well below this figure – with the bloc under increasing pressure to pay for gas in roubles in line with Kremlin demands.

It currently relies on Russia for around 40 percent of its gas exports.

Energy chief urges government to bring in more support

Elevated prices over the medium term make rebate and money-saving schemes increasingly difficult to enable, as spreading costs for consumers depends to markets eventually easing.

Nevertheless, the latest note from Stifel comes amid warnings from Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson of a further hike in household bills this October, which could result in household bills trebling over a 12-month window.

The consumer price cap was already hiked 54 percent by market regulator Ofgem last month, meaning households are now paying an average of nearly £2,000 per year for their energy needs.

Anderson told The Financial Times there could be a further £900 increase to average annual energy bills, urging the government to bring in more support to tackle the crisis of soaring electricity and gas prices.

This follows his proposals to the BEIS Committee in Westminster last month for a £1,000 per year saving scheme for low-income households, paid back over time.



He has also suggested 30-40 percent of households could end up in fuel poverty in the coming winter.

The energy boss said : “What’s about to happen to people, you cannot describe in any other way than saying it’s a crisis. All of a sudden a whole host of people who have never found themselves in debt and have never struggled to pay their bills are going to get hit by this crisis. Time is running out fast. Let’s get in a room and come up with the solutions now.”

Following the most recent rise in the price cap, Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £9bn rebate scheme and council tax savings for houses in bands A-D, which would take up to £350 per year off annual energy bills

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine however, gas prices have spiked again, with Downing Street under more and more pressure to bring in fresh support.

Earlier this month, Sunak told Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts in an interview it would be “silly” for the government to provide more help to families struggling with energy bills before the price cap is updated this autumn.

He said: ” I know people are anxious about this and wondering if they are going to go up even more, and I have always been clear from the beginning we will see what happens.”

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/High-UK-Gas-Prices-Could-Persist-Through-2025.html

[Rick Plant]

Lawyer for Uvalde teacher contradicts key detail from official police account of shooting



In the days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead, news reports echoed police claims that the shooter entered the classroom where he killed all his victims through a door that was left propped open by a school teacher.

Now, according to the San Antonio Express-News, the teacher's lawyer says she closed the door shut after she was informed an active shooter was on the loose.

Lawyer Don Flanary said the teacher, who remains unidentified, called 9-11 when to report an accident near the school involving a black truck, which later turned out to belong to the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Flanary added that the teacher propped open the door around the time Ramos crashed his truck, and that the employee called 9-11, but said he wants to make clear that the door was not left propped open.

“She saw the wreck,” Flanary said. “She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, ‘He has a gun!’ She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun so she ran back inside.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.”

A source familiar with the investigation said security video confirms the teacher removed the rock holding the door open and closed it.

Texas authorities belatedly admitted Friday that as many as 19 police officers were in the school hallway for more than an hour without acting, thinking the shooter had ended his killing.

"From the benefit of hindsight... it was the wrong decision, period," said Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw.

Ramos, who carried two assault-style rifles, was finally killed by police.

Uvalde survivors have described making desperate, whispered pleas for help in 911 phone calls during his assault. Many played dead to avoid drawing the shooter's attention.

Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo even smeared the blood of a dead friend on herself as she feigned death.

Samuel Salinas said he thinks Ramos fired at him, but the bullet struck a chair, sending shrapnel into the boy's leg. "I played dead so he wouldn't shoot me," he said.

AFP