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According to local media reports, France expressed its opposition to joint patrols of police personnel or troops by France and the United Kingdom over French waters on Thursday. In a letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French Prime Minister Jean Castex stated that conducting joint patrols over French waters is not a question of collective action, but rather of each State's sovereignty over their borders and coasts. "We have always been open to examine and discuss UK proposals for increased collaboration in good faith. We accepted some and turned down others "The letter was reported in the French daily Le Parisien. For example, we cannot allow British police or military patrolling our shores. "Our sovereignty is on the line," he stated emphatically. The UK prime minister proposed a "bilateral agreement of readmission facilitating the return of all illegal migrants crossing the Channel" in a letter to the EU. "Returning refugees is not an opt

The Biden administration stated on Thursday that it has reached an agreement with the Mexican government to restore a Trump-era border policy that requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their immigration court hearing in the United States. According to NBC News, the program will begin on Monday at one border crossing and will eventually expand to seven crossings, including San Diego and the Texas cities of Laredo, El Paso, and Brownsville. Former President Donald Trump originally established the policy in 2019 in response to an uptick in Central American families crossing the southwest border. According to the American Immigration Council, some 70,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico as a result of the program since 2019. President Joe Biden suspended the policy on his first day in office, citing violence against migrants waiting for court hearings in Mexico, and it was formally ended in June. In April, however, the Republican-controlled states of Texas and Missouri sue

House and Senate lawmakers narrowly avoided a government shutdown on Thursday by passing a package to finance the federal government until early next year, preventing a shutdown after some Republicans tried to exploit the approaching fiscal deadline to attack President Biden over his vaccine policies. The two victorious nighttime votes putting an end to a brief but stressful period that threatened to bring Washington to a halt by Saturday morning, a move Democrats had criticized as foolish and hazardous in the midst of a deadly pandemic. The new agreement, which must be signed by Vice President Joe Biden, covers federal spending through February 18. At that time, lawmakers must either pass another short-term measure or finish a dozen long-stalled bills. The new agreement, which must be signed by Vice President Joe Biden, covers federal spending through February 18. At that point, Congress must either pass another short-term measure or finish a dozen long-stalled appropriations bills to

According to a study, Covid booster shots can significantly improve the body's immunological defenses, raising hopes of preventing another wave of severe sickness caused by the Omicron strain. Researchers from the UK-based Covid-Boost trial examined immune responses in over 3,000 participants who got one of seven Covid-19 boosts or a placebo two to three months after their second dose of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccination, according to a report published in the Lancet. After two doses of AstraZeneca, those given Pfizer had antibody levels roughly 25 times greater than controls a month later. Antibody levels increased by more than eightfold when the Pfizer booster was administered after two Pfizer doses. A complete dosage of the Moderna vaccination was the most effective booster in the study, raising antibody levels 32-fold in the AstraZeneca group and 11-fold in the Pfizer group. Moderna is given in half-doses in the United Kingdom's booster program. While the results sug

Michelle Mone, a Conservative peer, has been accused of sending a racist message to an Indian-origin man, who claims in an official complaint that she informed him he was "a waste of a guy's white skin." The remark was purportedly used by a Tory member of the House of Lords in a WhatsApp message made in June 2019 amid a discussion over a deadly yacht disaster off the coast of Monaco. The message was part of a series of WhatsApp interactions that were screenshotted and handed to the House of Lords Standards Commissioner as part of a complaint alleging that Lady Mone sent racist and abusive texts. The complaint and screenshots of the discussions have been obtained by The Guardian, in which Mone appears to make insulting statements about the man's partner's mental health, referring to her as a "mental loony" and "nut case bird." Mone's texts were not sent in the course of her legislative duties, according to the commissioner, thus he was unabl

  The Supreme Court hinted on Wednesday that it is on the verge of significantly curtailing abortion rights in the United States, and that it is likely to maintain a Mississippi law that violates one of the key principles of the Roe v. Wade decision, which was handed down over 50 years ago. It was uncertain if the court would finally overturn Roe, which held that women have a fundamental right to terminate their pregnancies. Mississippi's statute forbidding most abortions after 15 weeks, according to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., is not a "dramatic departure" from viability, and gives women adequate time to decide whether or not to terminate their pregnancies. However, none of the court's six conservative members expressed support for upholding the court's ruling that states cannot prohibit abortion before fetal viability, which is commonly believed to be between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. "Why would 15 weeks be an improper line?" he continued. O

In reaction to the spread of the "extremely contagious" Omicron Covid strain across Europe, the European Commission president has suggested that obligatory vaccination be considered. Ursula von der Leyen, in a call to action, urged the EU's 27 member states should provide booster dosages quickly, and a commission communiqué backed nations that choose to temporarily require pre-travel PCR tests even within the bloc's borders. In the EU, there have been 59 occurrences of the Omicron variation, all of which have featured mild symptoms or have been asymptomatic. Von der Leyen, who worked as a doctor before entering politics, told reporters in Brussels: "We have the vaccines, the life-saving vaccines, but they are not being used adequately everywhere." And this comes at a price... This is going to be a huge health cost.

According to sources in France, French President Emmanuel Macron referred to Boris Johnson as a "clown" in a private chat. According to Macron, the British prime minister has "the attitude of a vulgarian," according to the political magazine Le Canard enchaîné, which is often referred to as the French equivalent of Private Eye. It happened after Macron chastised Johnson for his behavior during a phone call between the two leaders following the drowning of a refugee boat in the English Channel last Wednesday. After Johnson tweeted a letter outlining a five-point plan to address the issue of Channel crossings, the French president was enraged. "I had a serious conversation with Prime Minister Johnson two days ago," Macron said following the tweet during a press briefing on Friday. "I, for one, will continue to do so, as I will with all countries and leaders." When methods aren't serious, they surprise me. On these subjects, we do not communicat

Joe Biden outlined new measures to combat the coronavirus in the United States, including a nationwide push to encourage vaccine boosters, the expansion of at-home diagnostics, and tighter foreign travel restrictions. The US president visited the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Thursday, where he set out a pandemic battle plan for the winter months, despite the appearance of the Omicron variety and political blowback from Republicans. After the first US case of the Omicron variety of Covid-19 was discovered in California on Wednesday and a second in Minnesota on Thursday, the campaign has taken on new urgency. During December, the president promised to enhance pharmacy availability, and pharmacy partners will send millions of messages, calls, and emails to eligible customers with information on how to make an appointment or come in for a booster shot. A public education campaign will also be launched to urge adults to obtain boosters, with a particular focus on

The Duke of Sussex has warned that the Covid pandemic will be prolonged by "corporate greed and political incompetence," linking a "spectacular failure" of global vaccination equity to millions of people's struggle to get HIV drugs. Prince Harry said lessons must be learned from the HIV/AIDS pandemic in a letter read out at a World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS event on World Aids Day. Do we truly want to repeat the mistakes of the past? Everything I've learnt from Sentebale's youth [his nonprofit in Lesotho and Botswana] says no. They recognize that repeating these errors is damaging and self-defeating, as well as a betrayal of future generations." He said his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, would be "deeply grateful" to the scientific community for their work in combating the disease. Diana, Princess of Wales, who helped to highlight the work of Aids charities, would be "deeply grateful" to the scientific communit