Canada’s TC Energy (TRP.TO) said on Sunday it has not yet determined the cause of the Keystone oil pipeline leak last week in the United States, while also not giving a timeline as to when the pipeline will resume operation.

TC shut the pipeline after more than 14,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into a creek in Kansas on Wednesday, making it one of the largest U.S. crude spills in nearly a decade.

“Our teams continue to actively investigate the cause of the incident. We have not confirmed a timeline for re-start and will only resume service when it is safe to do so, and with the approval of the regulator,” TC said in an update posted to its website.

The pipeline operator said that it has more than 250 people working on the leak, including third-party environmental specialists, adding that it is continuously monitoring air quality and presently there are no indications of adverse health or public concerns.

Crews are also preparing for rain forecast to begin on Monday, TC said.

The 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone line is a critical artery shipping heavy Canadian crude from Alberta to refiners in the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast.

Keystone’s shutdown will hamper deliveries of Canadian crude both to the U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma and to the Gulf, where it is processed by refiners or exported.

(Reuters) -NASA’s Orion capsule barreled through Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific ocean on Sunday after making an uncrewed voyage around the moon, winding up the inaugural mission of the U.S. agency’s Artemis lunar program 50 years to the day after Apollo’s final moon landing.

The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, plunked down in the ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (1740 GMT) off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, executing a key demonstration of how future lunar astronauts would safely return to Earth.

“From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA’s journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion, back on Earth,” said Rob Navias, a NASA commentator speaking on a live stream.

The splashdown capped a 25-day mission less than a week after passing about 79 miles (127 km) above the moon in a lunar fly-by, and came about two weeks after reaching its farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles (434,500 km) from Earth.

The capsule at 9 a.m. PST committed to its fiery, 20-minute plunge at 24,500 miles per hour (39,400 kph) into Earth’s atmosphere when it shedded its service module, exposing a heatshield that reached peak temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

Orion blasted off on Nov. 16 from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop NASA’s towering next-generation Space Launch System (SLS), now the world’s most powerful rocket and the biggest NASA has built since the Saturn V of the Apollo era.

The debut SLS-Orion voyage kicked off Apollo’s successor program, Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.

By coincidence, the return to Earth of Artemis I unfolded on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 moon landing of Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on Dec. 11, 1972. They were the last of 12 NASA astronauts to walk on the moon during a total of six Apollo missions starting in 1969.

Re-entry marked the single most critical phase of Orion’s journey, testing whether its newly designed heat shield can withstand atmospheric friction and safely protect astronauts that would be on board.

“It is our priority-one objective,” NASA’s Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin said at a briefing last week. “There is no arc-jet or aerothermal facility here on Earth capable of replicating hypersonic re-entry with a heat shield of this size.”

If Artemis I is deemed a success, a crewed Artemis II flight around the moon and back could come as early as 2024, followed within a few more years by the program’s first lunar landing of astronauts, one of them a woman, with Artemis III.

Though the capsule encountered some unexpected communication blackouts and an electrical issue during its voyage around the moon, NASA has given high marks to the performance of both SLS and Orion so far, boasting that they exceeded the U.S. space agency’s expectations.

Twitter will relaunch its Twitter Blue subscription service Monday for $8 per month on the web, the company said.

Users will also get access on iOS for $11 per month to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark, the company said in a series of tweets Saturday.

Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.

These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries 81-year-old nursing home resident Bartley O’Hara, who said he is “vaccinated up to the eyeballs” and tracks coronavirus hospital trends as they “zoom up” for older adults, but remain flat for younger folks.

“The sense of urgency is not universal,” said O’Hara of Washington, D.C. But “if you’re 21, you probably should worry about your granny. We’re all in this together.”

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One troubling indicator for seniors: Hospitalizations for people with COVID-19 rose by more than 30% in two weeks. Much of the increase is driven by older people and those with existing health problems, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers include everyone testing positive, no matter why they are admitted.

When it comes to protecting seniors, “we’re doing a terrible job of that in this country,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute.

As nursing home leaders redouble efforts to get staff and residents boosted with the new vaccine version, now recommended for those 6 months and older, they face complacency, misinformation and COVID-19 fatigue. They are calling on the White House for help with an “all hands on deck” approach.

Clear messages about what the vaccine can do — and what it can’t — are needed, said Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes.

Breakthrough infections do not mean the vaccine has failed, she said, but that false perception has been hard to fight.

“We need to change our messaging to be accurate about what it does, which is prevent serious illness and hospitalization and death,” Sloan said. “This virus is insidious, and it just keeps popping up everywhere. We just need to be real about that.”

Problems include unwarranted hesitance to prescribe the antiviral pill Paxlovid quickly in the elderly, which prompted five major medical societies to hold a web-based educational session for doctors, “Vax & Pax: How to Keep Your Patients Safe This Winter.”

Easing restrictions, broader immunity in the general population and mixed messages about whether the pandemic is over have softened the sense of threat felt by younger adults. That may be a welcome development for most, but the attitude has seeped into nursing homes in troubling ways.

Getting family consent for vaccinating nursing home residents has become more difficult, nursing home leaders say. Some residents who can give their own consent are declining the shots. Only 23% of nursing home staff are up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.

Cissy Sanders of Austin, Texas, met multiple obstacles trying to get a booster for her 73-year-old mother, who is in a nursing home. No booster clinic was scheduled. The facility told her they couldn’t find a vaccinator. So she made plans to take her mom to Walgreens later this month.

“I’m concerned about the uptick in hospitalizations and deaths among seniors, and concerned about the lack of urgency at my mother’s nursing home in getting the residents and staff vaccinated” with the latest booster, she said.

Staff and visitors are potential entry points to nursing homes for the virus. The best facilities use a multi-layered approach, protecting residents with masks, screening questions, temperature checks and enhanced infection control.

“What we’ve learned during COVID is that the rate of spread is dependent on the community rate of spread,” said Tina Sandri, CEO of Forest Hills of D.C., a nursing home in the nation’s capital. “I feel safer in my building than anywhere else, including the grocery store.”

Meanwhile, hospitals across the country are seeing an influx of senior patients that Topol calls “pretty alarming.” Nationally, the rate of daily hospital admissions for those 70 and older with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 rose from 8.8 per 100,000 people on Nov. 15, to 12.1 per 100,000 people on Dec. 6, according to statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services. In California and New York, Topol said, hospitalizations for seniors with COVID-19 have already surpassed those during spring and summer omicron waves.

At NYU Langone Health, chief hospital epidemiologist Dr. Michael Phillips said a growing number of seniors are being admitted to his hospital with COVID-19. But the biggest increase he’s seen is in the emergency department, “which is very, very busy” with COVID-19, as well as flu patients.

Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, said his hospital has also seen an increase in COVID-19 admissions over the last couple of weeks — and many of the patients are seniors with other health problems. Some are admitted for different illnesses and test positive for COVID-19 in the hospital. The good news? “We haven’t seen an increase in ICU admissions,” he said.

The new combination booster shot, which targets both omicron and the original coronavirus, provides protection against one of the main omicron variants pushing up cases lately: BQ.1.1, which is especially adept at escaping immunity.

“But our booster rates among seniors are pathetically low,” Topol said, with only about a third getting the shot.

Long said health care providers at Houston Methodist promote the booster “every chance we get.” But they don’t administer it to people hospitalized with COVID-19, who are generally told to wait three months after being infected to get it.

Phillips also urges people to get their boosters, especially if they are at risk of serious illness or planning to spend time with someone who is. He said they see many more hospitalizations among people who are unvaccinated.

Deaths, like hospitalizations, are now rising.

The ultimate worry is that more seniors will die. Last spring and summer, death rates declined overall as more people gained protection from vaccination and prior infection. But the share of COVID-19–related deaths for the oldest old — adults 85 and older, who make up 2% of the population — grew to 40%.

Over the course of the pandemic, 1 in 5 COVID-19 deaths was among those who were in a long-term care facility.

Dr. Walid Michelen, chief medical officer for seven nonprofit nursing homes operated by the Archdiocese of New York, said Americans need to continue taking the pandemic seriously.

“It’s not going away. It’s here to stay,” he said. “We’re going to get a new variant, and who knows how aggressive that variant is going to be? That keeps me up at night.”

___

Associated Press writer Nicky Forster contributed from New York.

There is absolutely nothing like scaring the ever-loving crap out of your voters in return for some quick cash, right? That is precisely what’s going on with a certain Republican right now. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina appears to want to raise some money. It’s HOW he’s going about it that has raised some eyebrows.

This is because South Carolina residents are receiving some unusual emails. And these emails have a rather creepy subject matter:

“Your heat will be turned off!”

“Emergency notice.”

Wow. Imagine being a vulnerable elderly person or a family struggling to raise several children or –anybody really — and having an ominous email like that fly into your inbox So it comes through as an alert. You click on it and see the message again: “Your heat will be turned off.”

So who would send this? Is the person’s heat REALLY going to be turned off? Is it a phishing scam? Why — no. It’s just Senator Tim Scott trying to scare the heck out of you, so you will give him some money.

If the person clicks on the email, this becomes quite clear. “Biden had crippled our patriotic oil & gas industry,” the email starts. “And every American is paying the price.”

You know I have to give Scott credit. I did think I’d heard it all where fundraising was concerned. But now Scott has managed to achieve the lowest of the low status. Congratulations, Senator Scott!

“Many have been FORCED to turn off the heat in their homes,” the insidious email goes on. By all means, keep going, Scott. You really on a role. Then readers are asked to take a survey. I’d take it myself if one of the questions were: “Does Tim Scott need to resign?”

But then you’re taken to a Tim Scott page where money is asked for. What a putz! And what a stupid and rather evil idea. I do hope this won’t frighten the residents of South Carolina TOO much. If you know of any, feel free to warn them that a fake, dishonest, and slimy Tim Scott email might just find its way into their inbox. As for Scott himself — looks like Donald Trump has taught him well.

The post GOP Senator Tim Scott caught in the act appeared first on Palmer Report.

Vladimir Putin could use any peace talks with Ukraine as an justification to rearm and recruit Russian troops, the foreign secretary has warned.

James Cleverly instructed Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that negotiations want to be “actual” and “significant”.

The Russian president stated on Friday that Moscow might have to strike a deal with Ukraine to finish the war it commenced in February.

It was one of the 1st occasions he has spoken publicly about a likely peace arrangement.

Mr Cleverly instructed Mr Putin could use conversations as a include.

“Negotiations have to have to be serious, they will need to be significant,” he advised Sky Information.

“They can’t just be a fig leaf for Russian rearmament and even more recruitment of troopers, regardless of whether that be from the Wagner Team or trawling prisons in Russia.”

Mr Cleverly said the written content of peace talks and the threshold that may be met to provide peace “has obtained to be decided by the Ukrainian persons, the Ukrainian president”.

“They’re the types whose sons and daughters are being killed in this,” he stated.

He was sceptical, on the other hand, about regardless of whether serious peace talks would consider put.

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1:11

‘We are ready for agreements’

Examine far more:
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“I am not definitely looking at everything coming from the Russian side that provides me assurance that Vladimir Putin is entering these talks in good religion,” Mr Cleverly stated.

“The wider rhetoric is nonetheless quite confrontational.”

The sticking place involving Russia and Ukraine is most likely to be above Crimea and other Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

In recent months, Ukraine has regained manage of considerable parts of occupied territory in the east, when Russia most lately ceded ground in the southern metropolis of Kherson.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has constantly explained Russia should go away all occupied territories right before peace talks can begin.

This consists of Crimea, which Russia annexed during an unlawful invasion in 2014.

Graphic:

James Cleverly claimed Russia has not indicated peace talks will choose location

Russia also annexed the locations of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia just after referendums in September that the West labelled a “sham”.

Previous month, Mr Putin demanded the West have to formally recognise the 4 areas just before peace talks can go ahead.

On Friday, he also admitted that there had been some troubles procuring products and outfits for the hundreds of hundreds of conscripts termed up to struggle in Ukraine.

Resource backlink

The post Putin could use peace talks ‘as excuse to rearm and recruit troops’, foreign secretary James Cleverly warns | Politics News appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

In excess of the past day, Ukrainian air forces have released five strikes on enemy staff, ammunition and army equipment clusters.

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The post Ukrainian air forces launch five strikes on enemy positions appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

MEXICO CITY — A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook southern Mexico Sunday morning, sending nervous residents of the capital into the street.

The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake’s epicenter was 2½ miles (4 kilometers) northwest of Corral Falso in the southern state of Guerrero. The area sits along Mexico’s Pacific coast between the beach resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatenejo.

There were no immediate reports of damage. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that civil defense was checking for damage.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said there were no reports of incidents in the capital.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main front line in the south..

* Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter bombs, including one sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and another to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.

* Air raid alerts were issued across all of Ukraine following warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes. “An overall air raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters,” country’s border service wrote on Telegram messaging app.

* Ukraine’s military said it had found fragments of Russian-fired nuclear-capable missiles with dud warheads in west Ukraine, and that their apparent purpose was to distract air defences.

* The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson has lost its power supply after heavy shelling by Russian forces, the regional governor said.

* European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, an EU diplomat said.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.

* Lavrov said that discussions with Washington about potential prisoner exchanges were being conducted by the two countries’ intelligence services, and that he hoped they would be successful.

* The European Union needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term, Lithuania’s prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference.

* Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

* Russia said the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past.

* Ukraine sacked a top engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of collaborating with Russian forces, and urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Kyiv.

* Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the Zaporizhzhia plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog’s efforts to create a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

* In a grim sign of the energy crisis caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid, nine people have been killed in fires over the past 24 hours as Ukrainians resorted to emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in violation of safety rules to try to heat their homes after power outages.

* “Remember one thing – the Russians are afraid. And they are very cold and no one will help them, because they do not have popular support,” – Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukrainian presidential staff.

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