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Yes, Pfizer and Moderna are increasing the cost of their COVID-19 vaccines.
Only around 17% of the U.S. population — around 56 million people — have received Pfizer and Moderna’s latest boosters since they were approved in September, according to the CDC.
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. – Thomas Paine
Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back Wednesday against GOP accusations that the Justice Department’s plea agreement with Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, reflects a double standard of preferential treatment for Democrats.
Garland was pressed during a news conference in Sweden to address accusations from Republican lawmakers that Hunter Biden merely received a “slap on the wrist” while former President Donald Trump was criminally indicted.
Garland rejected the idea, pointing to the fact that the US attorney in Delaware tasked with investigating Biden’s son was appointed under the Trump administration.
“As I said from the moment of my appointment as attorney general, I would leave this matter in the hands of the United States attorney who was appointed by the previous president, and assigned to this matter by the previous administration, that he would be given full authority to decide the matter as he decided was appropriate,” Garland said. “And that’s what he’s done.”
The attorney general said that any further questions to “explain” the plea agreement should be directed to the US attorney in Delaware.
Sen. Chuck Grassley implied the FBI may have defined the scope of its Hunter Biden investigation so narrowly, bribery allegations couldn’t be probed.
“In regard to U.S. Attorney Weiss, do we know if his job follows up on bribery, or is it just this tax stuff that we’ve been reading about? If it doesn’t include bribery, then he can’t do anything about investigating.”
And with those two sentences, Grassley revealed the initial answer Americans need to assess whether the DOJ and FBI sabotaged a criminal probe into the Biden family.
JUST IN - Fed Chair Powell: A Fed issued CBDC "is not something we support." If we did have one it would be intermediated by banks.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in collaboration with the IMF and other central banks, is proposing common conditions for retail payments with digital money on a distributed ledger.
The MAS said retailer Amazon.com (AMZN), finance company FAZZ and superapp creator Grab are collaborating on a pilot to test escrow arrangements for online retail transactions, with payments released to the merchant only after the customer receives the items purchased. The white paper covers technical specifications as well as "business and operating models for how arrangements could be programmed," to specify validity periods or types of shops when making transfers.
This collaboration among industry players and policymakers has helped achieve important advances in settlement efficiency, merchant acquisition, and user experience with the use of digital money. More importantly, it has enhanced the prospects for digital money becoming a key component of the future financial and payments landscape," Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS' chief fintech officer, said in a statement.