President Donald Trump has issued a pardon for former Army Lt. Mark Bashaw, who faced a court-martial and a criminal conviction after refusing to comply with Biden-era Covid mandates. Bashaw’s refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine, wear a mask indoors, or submit to routine testing led to his prosecution under the military’s strict vaccine requirements implemented by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2021. Bashaw, the first service member to stand trial over the rules, was convicted in 2022 but avoided jail time.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pulled its recommendation that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Portland’s flagship luxury high-rise, the $600 million Ritz-Carlton tower, may soon change hands as its developers prepare to surrender the property to their lender. Struggling with the economic aftershocks of COVID-19 and years of downtown unrest, the 35-story tower—Block 216—has failed to reach profitability.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funds from going to gain-of-function research in China, Iran, and other countries.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that his government will stop its procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in light of a recent report highlighting the presence of DNA within them.
Dr. Robert Redfield, former CDC Director under President Donald Trump, expressed approval of the White House's recent acknowledgment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
