Author: fotiosgrigoriou@gmail.com

CNN  —  In an abrupt reversal, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that it no longer plans to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a groundbreaking research project focused on preventing disease in older women. The move comes after a wave of concern and criticism about the threat to the longstanding study. For decades, the initiative – conducted by the National Institutes of Health – has tracked the health of tens of thousands of women to understand how to reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and more in women after menopause. Seminal findings…

US consumer sentiment plummeted in April after Donald Trump’s trade war threw the global economy into chaos, according to a new report.The index of consumer sentiment, a score based on a monthly survey asking Americans about their financial outlooks, fell by 32% since January – the largest drop since the 1990 recession, according to the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.“Expectations worsened for vast swaths of the population across age, education income and political affiliation,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys of consumers, in a statement. “Consumers perceived risks to multiple aspects of the economy, in large part…

100 days of Trump: 3 key changes impacting people across America100 days after returning to power, Donald Trump is charging ahead with tariffs, an immigration crackdown and federal cuts, including dismantling DEI.Within the first 100 days of his second administration President Donald Trump has been incredibly busy, implementing major changes from enacting tariffs to targeting diversity initiatives.  But Americans are divided about whether the changes have been good, according to a recent survey of more than 900 voters conducted by the New York Times and Siena College Research Institute.Around 54% of participants said they disapprove of the president’s handling of…

Enfeebling universities or seizing control is an early chapter in the authoritarian playbook, studied eagerly by the likes of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. “Would-be authoritarians and one-party states centrally target universities with the aim of restricting dissent,” Jason Stanley, a scholar of fascism at Yale, wrote in the Guardian in September. Last month, he announced that he was leaving the US for Canada because of the political climate and particularly the battle over higher education.It is not merely that universities are often bastions of liberal attitudes and hotbeds for protest. They also constitute one of the critical institutions of civil…

This month, the Michigan Supreme Court announced that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for people under the age of 21 violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment. The court also held, based on a separate recent decision, that this rule applies retroactively. These decisions are the latest from a court that’s been steadily carving out a path against excessive sentencing.  Under the federal Constitution, such sentences are illegal only for people under 18. Laws that require a judge to condemn children to live the rest of their lives in prison, the U.S. Supreme Court has explained, are unconstitutional because…

CNN  —  One victim had recently returned home after decades working abroad to enjoy a retirement filled with travel and family time; another hoped the trip into the beauty of Indian-administered Kashmir would cheer the spirits of his semi-paralyzed wife. Both men were among 26 tourists shot dead by militants this week in a massacre that has ripped open old wounds between India and its neighbor Pakistan, tipping them a step closer to military escalation. Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety, but each control only part. They have fought three wars over the territory – which is famous for…

Odds of winning the Powerball and Mega Millions are NOT in your favorOdds of hitting the jackpot in Mega Millions or Powerball are around 1-in-292 million. Here are things that you’re more likely to land than big bucks.The Mega Millions jackpot rose to $60 million ahead of Friday’s drawing after no one matched all the winning numbers on Tuesday.If someone matches all six numbers on Friday night, they can choose a one-time cash payment of $26.9 million. The numbers were drawn just after 11 p.m. ET, and we have the results below.There have been three Mega Millions winners this year…

Takeaways from Trump’s sit-down with Time magazinePresident Donald Trump sat down with Time magazine to talk everything from Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to ending the Ukraine war.President Donald Trump said he’s open to bringing a wrongly deported Maryland man back to the U.S. for a court hearing, despite his administration saying Kilmar Abrego Garcia will “never” return to the U.S from El Salvador.Trump discussed Abrego Garcia’s case in an interview with Time Magazine to mark the second-term Republican president’s first 100 days in office.“Bringing him back and retrying him wouldn’t bother me, but I leave that up to my lawyer,”…

Across the US, many executives leading apparel and textiles businesses are scratching their heads.Tariffs of 145% on goods from China, and tariffs of 10% on goods from much of the rest of the world, have been billed by the White House as a once-in-a-generation efffort to boost domestic manufacturing.The size of Trump’s tariffs are in flux. This week, the president suggested he could cut the tariffs on China “substantially” – the Wall Street Journal reported the cuts could bring rates down to 50% and 65%.But business leaders who spoke to the Guardian warned tariffs were unlikely to achieve Trump’s stated…

Three Americans sentenced to death in Congo over failed coupThree U.S. citizens were among 37 defendants sentenced to death by a military court on Friday for their role in a failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo.A Maryland man who prosecutors say referred to himself as the “Master of Mutilation” faces charges for using social media to order secessionist fighters to maim and kill people in Cameroon, the Justice Department announced.A federal grand jury indicted Erin Tano Tataw, on April 24 for using social media to order separatists to injure and kill Cameroonian civilians so the country could split…