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Entertainment

Box Office: Brad Pitt’s ‘Bullet Train’ Arrives With $30 Million Debut

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“Bullet Train,” a John Wick-ian romp with Brad Pitt in the aisle seat, arrived in theaters with a $30.1 million opening weekend. That’s enough to top the domestic box office, but it’s a middling result given “Bullet Train’s” $90 million price tag and Pitt’s star power. The Sony Pictures release will need to maintain momentum in the coming weeks as it tries to break even or turn a profit.

“A big film like this with lot of expectations should have had stronger debut,” says Jeff Bock, senior media analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “That said, there’s not a lot of competition in August, so ‘Bullet Train’ should have a good window to make its mark in the coming weeks.”

“Bullet Train” is trying to prove that an action flick that isn’t based on a well-known property can defy the odds and resonate with audiences. But part of the issue for the film is that critics weren’t on board. “Bullet Train” landed a mediocre 54% approval rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers faulting the movie for being overly derivative. Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge was mixed on “Bullet Train,” writing that “neither the characters nor the film they inhabit are particularly deep.”

“Bullet Train” was directed by David Leitch, who once served as a stunt double for Pitt before moving on to oversee the likes of “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2.” It centers on a hapless hitman whose mission to nab a suitcase full of cash on a high-speed train in Japan, devolves into double crosses and brutal fights with an army of competing killers, thieves and social deviants.

Universal and Amblin’s “Easter Sunday,” the weekend’s other major release, stumbled in its opening frame, earning a meagre $5.3 million for an eighth place finish on domestic charts. “Easter Sunday” stars stand-up comic Jo Koy as an actor who attends his dysfunctional Filipino American family’s Easter Sunday celebration.

The good news for Universal and Amblin is “Easter Sunday” was a modest bet, carrying a price tag of $17 million. Comedies, once a reliable draw, have struggled at the box office in recent years. In fact, “Easter Sunday” is the only major studio comedy being released theatrically this summer, a sign of how far the genre has fallen in popularity.

“DC League of Super-Pets,” an animated offering from Warner Bros., nabbed second place with $11.2 million. After two weeks, “Super-Pets” boasts a domestic gross of $45.1 million, a disappointing result given its $90 million production budget. Under its new corporate owner, Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to shake up its cinematic universe of DC Comics characters, a change of course that resulted in the company’s controversial decision this week to scrap “Batgirl” after the movie had been completed. Instead of debuting on HBO Max as originally planned or being retro-fitted for a theatrical run, the film will now become a tax write-down.

Universal’s “Nope” came in third with $8.5 million. That brings the twisty UFO thriller from Jordan Peele to $97.9 million at the domestic box office, an impressive result for a movie that wasn’t derived from some preexisting piece of IP.

Disney and Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” and Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: Rise of Gru” rounded out the top five, earning $7.6 million and $7.1 million, respectively. That brings the MCU adventure’s stateside total to $316.1 million, while the “Despicable Me” spinoff has now earned $334.6 million domestically.

In limited release, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” grossed $226,526 on 6 screens in New York and Los Angeles, which came out to a $37,754 per-screen average. The A24 horror film follows a group of rich 20-somethings at a hurricane party in a remote family mansion that becomes the locus of a lot of blood-letting. The ensemble cast features former “SNL” star Pete Davidson, “The Hate U Give’s” Amandla Stenberg and “Borat 2” breakout Maria Bakalova.

On the milestone front, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has now supplanted “Titanic” as the seventh-biggest film ever at the domestic box office, earning $662 million in ticket sales. The sequel, now in its eleventh week of release, added $7 million to its total. The film is the highest-grossing release of Tom Cruise’s career and, thanks to a lucrative profit-sharing pact, stands to leave him more than $100 million richer.

The domestic box office has experienced an impressive rebound in recent months; it’s a resurgence fueled by successes such as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion.” The bad news for theaters is that “Bullet Train” is the last big-budget, major studio film this summer and there’s about to be a veritable desert when it comes to populist fare. Studio executives and theater owners privately say that there won’t be another smash hit until “Black Adam” opens on Oct. 21 or “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” debuts on Nov. 11. That’s a long time to wait, particularly for an exhibition industry that’s still trying to shake off the lingering impact of COVID closures and diminished attendance.

“We need to manage expectations,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore. “The next three months aren’t going to be like the previous three months. It’s going to be a long time before we get another blockbuster.”



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Entertainment

‘Bullet Train’ Heads for $30M Opening – The Hollywood Reporter

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David Leitch’s Bullet Train easily topped the Friday chart with an opening day gross of $12.6 million, including $4.6 million in Thursday previews.

Brad Pitt leads a star-packed cast in this tale of an assassin roaming a high-speed Japanese bullet train. Other names on the marquee include Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock.

Sony, which has been waging an aggressive marketing campaign in hopes of whipping up interest, is eyeing a domestic debut in the $30 million range. Critics haven’t exactly embraced Bullet Train, which currently holds a 53 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences bestowed the film with a B+ CinemaScore.

Bullet Train is the last major studio offering of the summer, putting increased pressure on the movie’s performance. Generally, the summer box office season lasts until Labor Day, but delays due to the pandemic continue and studios are seeing some of their films delayed in postproduction.

The weekend’s other new offering is Jay Chandrasekhar’s comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy as a struggling actor and comedian who attends a raucous holiday meal with his Filipino family.

Easter Sunday is headed for a $5 million debut after earning $2 million on Friday, in line with expectations.

Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Tiffany Haddish and Lou Diamond Phillips star in the Universal film.



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Entertainment

Brad Pitt rocks a colorful green suit while hitting the red carpet at the Bullet Train premiere

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Brad Pitt rocks a colorful green suit while hitting the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film Bullet Train

By Brian Gallagher For Dailymail.com

Published: | Updated:

Brad Pitt rocked a rather colorful ensemble while hitting the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere for his new film Bullet Train.

The 58-year-old actor was all smiles at the premiere, held at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday.

The actor was also seen posing on the red carpet with his co-star Logan Lerman and his longtime manager Cynthia Pett-Dante.

Colorful: Brad Pitt, 58, rocked a rather colorful ensemble while hitting the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere for his new film Bullet Train. He actor was all smiles at the premiere, held at the Regency Village Theatre in LA on Monday

Pitt stepped out with a teal knit top under a light lime green coat with matching baggy pants.

He also sported the early makings of a salt-and-pepper goatee for his night on the red carpet.

The actor completed his look with a pair of yellow Adidas sneakers with maroon stripes.

Brad and Logan: The actor was also seen posing on the red carpet with his co-star Logan Lerman

Brad and Cynthia: Brad Pitt also hit the red carpet with his longtime manager Cynthia Pett-Dante

Brad’s look: Pitt stepped out with a teal knit top under a light lime green coat with matching baggy pants

Goatee: He also sported the early makings of a salt-and-pepper goatee for his night on the red carpet

The Los Angeles premiere marked a return home for Pitt, after the last few weeks jet-setting around the globe for international premieres of Bullet Train.

He was first spotted in Paris on July 18, before traveling to Berlin for a premiere there the very next day.

He completed his three-cities-in-three-days promo tour with the London premiere just a day after Berlin. 

Jet setting: The Los Angeles premiere marked a return home for Pitt, after the last few weeks jet-setting around the globe for international premieres of Bullet Train

Berlin: He was first spotted in Paris on July 18, before traveling to Berlin for a premiere there the very next day

Bullet Train is based on the 2010 novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka, which was adapted for this film by Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street: Part Two — 1978).

Pitt stars as an assassin known as Ladybug, who is trying to leave his deadly world behind when he’s coaxed into one last job by his handler Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock).

His mission is to board a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto and retrieve a briefcase, though he soon learns there are other assassins on board with the same objective. 

New movie: Bullet Train is based on the 2010 novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka, which was adapted for this film by Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street: Part Two – 1978)

Assassin: Pitt stars as an assassin known as Ladybug, who is trying to leave his deadly world behind when he’s coaxed into one last job by his handler Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock)

More assassins: His mission is to board a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto and retrieve a briefcase, though he soon learns there are other assassins on board with the same objective

After Bullet Train hits theaters, Pitt will next be seen in the highly-anticipated Damien Chazelle film Babylon.

The film is set in Hollywood’s transitional period from the silent film era to the ‘talkies,’ arriving in limited release Christmas Day and January 6, 2023 in wide release. 

He’s also slated to reunite with his Ocean’s Eleven co-star George Clooney in an untitled project about a pair of high-powered fixers who get assigned the same job. 

Coming soon: After Bullet Train hits theaters, Pitt will next be seen in the highly-anticipated Damien Chazelle film Babylon

Transition: The film is set in Hollywood’s transitional period from the silent film era to the ‘talkies,’ arriving in limited release Christmas Day and January 6, 2023 in wide release

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Health

Could a universal coronavirus vaccine be the silver bullet that ends this pandemic—and the next?

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First-generation vaccines were not the panacea hoped for in COVID-19’s early days. Nor did herd immunity swoop in and save the day.

Could a so-called “pan-coronavirus” vaccine be the long-awaited silver bullet that ends the COVID pandemic—and the next one, too?

Answer: It’s complicated.

“The term pan-coronavirus vaccine needs an asterisk next to it,” Dr. Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Medicine, told Fortune.

Such a vaccine could tackle all coronaviruses, named for their crown-like appearance under a microscope. Or it could focus on COVID-19 and its myriad variants. Or it could tackle the four longstanding coronaviruses that circulate as common colds—or any combination thereof.

It could also protect against SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a coronavirus that emerged in 2002 and killed hundreds, and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome), another coronavirus that emerged in 2012 and killed hundreds.

Aside from the possibility of concluding the current coronavirus pandemic, it might even be able to squash the next as soon as it starts.

“Coronaviruses jump over to the human population,” said Dr. Duane Wesemann, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He’s leading a team of researchers working on a pan-coronavirus vaccine with funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“I don’t know when [the next will]. Maybe not in our lifetime. But it will probably happen sometime. Is there a way to develop a vaccine that will be available for us in the setting of SARS-CoV-3?”

Whatever form such a vaccine might take, it’s a worthy goal, Dr. Bruce Walker—director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, a medical institute focused on eradicating disease, and co-leader of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness—told Fortune.

But it may forever remain just that: a goal.

“I think we have to be aspirational in terms of aiming to make a pan-coronavirus vaccine, but it will not be an easy task,” Walker cautioned. “There’s not an obvious path forward.”

Work underway—and potentially years of work ahead

However pie-in-the-sky the goal may be, there’s no shortage of work being done to accomplish it. A universal coronavirus vaccine is a top research priority for nonprofits, government agencies, and vaccine-makers, according to an April article in Nature.

Among entities with a version in development: Moderna, Duke University, and myriad biotech companies.

Clinical trials are underway for attempts by the U.S. Army and CalTech, Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Fortune.

Such a vaccine could indeed serve as a “silver bullet,” he said: “That would be the way you take this threat off the table—not just SARS-CoV-2, but all coronaviruses. And to knock off 30% of common colds would be a really good thing.”

But these things take time, he said. An apt illustration: the flu vaccine.

“We don’t yet have a universal flu vaccine though people have been working on that for some time,” he said. “There are some versions of a universal flu vaccine in clinical testing, but it’s not something that’s been deemed to have efficacy and hold up over multiple influenza seasons with multiple strains.”

Yet another: HIV.

“We’ve been working on vaccines for some pathogens like HIV for decades,” Wesemann said. “Some scientists several decades ago were thinking, ‘Gosh, it’s only going to be a few years until we have an HIV vaccination,’ but many decades later, we’re still figuring out we have more to learn about how to do this.”

Wesemann said he’s more optimistic about the development of a pan-coronavirus vaccine, “but we learned a lot of humility from other pathogens.”

“We don’t understand our immune system as much as we need to, to sit down and design the best vaccine,” he said.

Making a universal coronavirus vaccine available to the general public will require additional research, animal studies, and early-phase human studies, all of which can take years, Dr. Dan Barouch—a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research—told Fortune.

And the process is not occurring on the accelerated Operation Warp Speed timeline the original COVID vaccines were on, Adalja noted.

“It will likely still be a while before a pan-coronavirus vaccine will be available to the general public,” Barouch said. “I don’t think anyone will be going this fall to get this at CVS.”

Promising, but not impervious

Even when—or if—a universal coronavirus vaccine is available, it likely won’t be bulletproof, experts caution.

While a pan-coronavirus vaccine has the potential to “help end the pandemic”—at least in the way of halting severe disease and death—its success would hinge on enough individuals around the world to get the jab, said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brighman and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Otherwise, the virus could learn to evade even a universal COVID vaccine.

“That’s certainly a possibility,” Kuritzkes said.

“So long as the virus continues to circulate in a significant number of people, there’s an opportunity for continued adaptations of the virus,” he added. “Were there to be a variant that emerged that had acquired mutations that were able to evade immune response from the supposed pan-coronavirus vaccine, the virus could leap into the vaccinated population and emerge again.”

There are two goals vaccines can aspire to, Ray said: to prevent infection altogether, or to merely prevent severe disease and disruption, as current COVID vaccines do.

A pan-coronavirus vaccine might prevent severe disease and disruption from all variants and subvariants of COVID-19, theoretically eliminating the need for boosters.

But such a vaccine may still allow the spread of infection, as current vaccines do, experts warn.

“My guess is if we design a vaccine that’s meant to be as broad as possible, we’re going to have to give up some potency,” Wesemann said.

The pan-coronavirus vaccine concept may simply be too good to ever become reality, Ray cautioned—but he holds out hope that such a development could “hit that sweet spot of really being protective and durable.”

“One of the things that keeps us awake at night is if we do things that don’t control the spread, that it will continue to evolve and find a gap in our armor,” he said.

One possible gap: long COVID, a potentially disabling condition federal officials say could affect up to 23 million Americans who’ve survived infection.

Research shows that “even mild to moderate COVID can have long-term consequences for cardiovascular and mental health outcomes,” Ray said. “We might find we prevent the severe first couple of weeks of disease but see an accumulation of damage from relatively mild infections.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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World

US says Israeli military gunfire ​’likely responsible​’ for Shireen Abu Akleh’s death but examination of bullet inconclusive

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The US Security Coordinator, according to the statement, “concluded that gunfire from IDF (Israel Defense Forces) positions was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.” That conclusion came “by summarizing both” the IDF and Palestinian Authority (PA) investigations — probes to which the US Security Coordinator was granted “full access” over the past several weeks, Price said.

The US Security Coordinator — who leads an inter-agency team that coordinates with the Israeli government and the PA — “found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel,” Price said.

“We again offer our deepest condolences to the Abu Akleh family,” he said.

The family said in a statement Monday that they were “incredulous” about the findings and the “notion that the American investigators, whose identity is not disclosed in the statement, believe the bullet ‘likely came from Israeli positions’ is cold comfort.”

Ali al-Samoudi, an Al Jazeera journalist who was shot along with Abu Akleh, said he was “expecting” the inconclusive results and called the US the real “enemy of democracy and human rights.”

Price said the US “will remain engaged” with Israel and the PA and “urge accountability.”

He noted that the examination of the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was “extremely detailed,” and that “independent, third-party examiners, as part of a process overseen by the U.S. Security Coordinator,” were unable to definitively conclude its origin.

“Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion,” Price said.

Following the US findings, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that “the IDF investigation was unable to determine who is responsible for the tragic death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but it was able to determine conclusively that there was no intention to harm her.” Israel, Lapid said, “expresses sorrow over her death,” and he gave his “full and unequivocal backing” to IDF soldiers.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a separate statement that “it is not possible to determine the source of the shooting — and as such, the investigation will continue.”

The IDF said that the forensic analysis was conducted in a forensic lab in Israel by Israeli experts while US Security Coordinator representatives were present.

“Despite these efforts, the physical condition of the bullet and the quality of the characteristics on it do not enable a ballistic examination to conclusively determine whether or not the bullet was fired from the weapon which was examined,” according to a statement from the IDF.

The Palestinian Public Prosecutor said Monday it was “not true” that the bullet was severely damaged.

Palestinian Authority Attorney General Akram Al Khatib said Saturday that the PA had been given “guarantees” by the US that the bullet would not be given to the Israelis, and did not respond to follow up questions after the IDF said they were involved. The US embassy in Jerusalem told CNN earlier Monday it had no additional comment on exactly who was examining the bullet.

Abu Akleh’s family criticized in their statement the focus on the bullet that killed her, calling such emphasis “misplaced” and “an attempt by the Israeli side to spin the narrative in its favor.”

They also noted that there “were numerous eyewitnesses to the killing, and we have now had the benefit of reports from multiple local and international media outlets, human rights organizations, and the United Nations that an Israeli soldier fired the fatal shot, as there were no other armed elements in the area of Jenin where Shireen was murdered.”

A CNN investigation in May unearthed evidence — including two videos of the scene of the shooting — that there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death. Footage obtained by CNN, corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analyst and an explosive weapons expert, suggested that Abu Akleh, who was wearing a helmet and blue protective vest marked “Press” at the time of her killing, was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces.

CNN is among at least five media outlets that conducted investigations that suggest the shot was fired from a position where Israeli troops were located. None of the investigations found any evidence of Palestinian militants near Abu Akleh when she was shot, or of militants who had a direct line of fire towards her. A United Nations Human Rights Office investigation reached the same conclusions as the journalistic investigations.

Abu Akleh’s family vowed Monday to continue to advocate for her, writing in its statement that to say the US investigation, “with its total lack of transparency, undefined goals, and support for Israel’s overall position is a disappointment would be an understatement.”

“We continue to call on the American government to conduct an open, transparent, and thorough investigation of all the facts by independent agencies free from any political consideration or influence,” the family said.

Two dozen US senators called last month for direct US involvement in the investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing. US President Joe Biden plans to visit Israel and the West Bank later this month.

The family previously said they had not been informed that the bullet was being turned over to US officials.

A US official told CNN prior to the release of the findings that Washington had been pushing the Palestinians to give them access to the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for weeks, and the findings by the State Department come after lawmakers in both the House and Senate called for US government involvement to ensure accountability for Abu Akleh’s killing.

Palestinian officials made the bullet available to US authorities on Saturday. PA Justice Minister Mohammad Al-Shalaldeh told Al Jazeera on Sunday night that US officials had returned the bullet.

This story has been updated with additional details Monday.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.

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World

Israel says it will test bullet that killed reporter, Palestinians disagree

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A Palestinian woman takes pictures at the scene where Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead during an Israeli raid, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

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JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 3 (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday it would test a bullet that killed a Palestinian-American journalist to determine whether one of its soldiers shot her and said a U.S. observer would be present.

The Palestinians, who on Saturday handed over the bullet to a U.S. security coordinator, said they had been assured that Israel would not take part in the ballistics. read more

Washington has yet to comment. The United States has a holiday weekend to mark July 4.

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The death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, and feuding between the sides as to the circumstances, have overshadowed a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden due this month.

Palestinians say the Israeli military deliberately killed Abu Akleh. Israel denies this, saying she may have been hit by errant army fire or by a bullet from one of the Palestinian gunmen who were clashing with its forces at the scene.

In a separate incident, a 17-year-old Palestinian died in hospital after being shot late on Saturday by Israeli soldiers in clash in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli army said a suspect had thrown a firebomb at soldiers, who in response opened fire.

“The (ballistic) test will not be American. The test will be an Israeli test, with an American presence throughout,” said Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ran Kochav.

“In the coming days or hours it will be become clear whether it was even us who killed her, accidentally, or whether it was the Palestinian gunmen,” he told Army Radio. “If we killed her, we will take responsibility and feel regret for what happened.”

Akram al-Khatib, general prosecutor for the Palestinian Authority, said the test would take place at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

“We got guarantees from the American coordinator that the examination will be conducted by them and that the Israeli side will not take part,” Al-Khatib told Voice of Palestine radio, adding that he expected the bullet to be returned on Sunday.

A U.S. embassy spokesperson said: “We don’t have anything new at this time.”

Biden is expected to hold separate meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on his July 13-16 trip to the Middle East. The Abu Akleh case will be a diplomatic and domestic test for new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

“It will take a few days to conduct a ballistic test, with several experts, to ensure that there is an unequivocal assessment,” Israeli Deputy Internal Security Minister Yoav Segalovitz told Army Radio.

Israel has said the person who fired the bullet could only be determined by matching it to a gun in a forensic laboratory. Such testing usually requires finding markings on the bullet left by the unique barrel rifling of the gun it was fired from.

The Israeli military previously said one soldier could have been in a position to fire the fatal shot, suggesting it might only consider that soldier’s rifle.

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Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Edmund Blair and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Shireen Abu Aqleh: bullet that killed journalist given to US forensic experts | Middle East and north Africa

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The Palestinian Authority on Saturday said it has given the bullet that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh to American forensic experts, taking a step toward resolving a standoff with Israel over the investigation into her death.

Abu Aqleh, a veteran correspondent who was well known throughout the Arab world, was fatally shot while covering an Israeli military raid on 11 May in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians, along with Abu Aqleh’s colleagues who were with her at the time, say she was killed by Israeli fire.

The Israeli army says that she was caught in the crossfire of a battle with Palestinian gunmen, and that it is impossible to determine which side killed her without analysing the bullet. The Palestinians have refused to turn over the bullet to Israel, saying they do not trust them.

The Palestinian attorney general, Akram al-Khatib, said on Saturday that the bullet was given to US experts “for technical work”. He reiterated the Palestinian refusal to share the bullet with the Israelis.

Al-Khatib said the Palestinians welcome the participation of any international bodies to “help us confirm the truth”. “We are confident and certain of our investigations and the results we have reached,” he said.

It was not immediately clear what the American experts could discover without also studying the Israeli weapon that Israel says might have fired the shot. There was no immediate word from Israel on whether it would share the rifle.

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The Palestinian announcement comes just over a week before President Joe Biden is to visit the region.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a diplomatic matter, said the issue was raised in a phone call between the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and that both sides hope to resolve the issue before Biden’s visit.

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US

Biden’s Health Secretary: ‘No Magic Bullet’ for Preserving Abortion Access

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WASHINGTON — As Democrats and reproductive rights advocates clamored for President Biden to forcefully counter the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, his health secretary, Xavier Becerra, stepped up to a lectern here on Tuesday to list the steps his department would take to preserve and expand access to abortion.

The list, for now anyway, is short.

“There is no magic bullet,” Mr. Becerra said at a morning news conference, “but if there is something we can do, we will find it and we will do it.”

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday eliminating the constitutional right to abortion was not unexpected, yet neither the White House nor Mr. Becerra’s agency had immediate policy responses at the ready. Officials inside the administration say they are still wrestling with the prospect of a mainstream area of women’s health care suddenly becoming illegal in roughly half the country, and will need time to sort through their options.

Yet Mr. Biden is under intense political pressure to act, and after his news conference some advocates accused Mr. Becerra of sounding tepid. Some Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been pushing the Biden administration to explore the prospect of building abortion clinics on federal land and paying for people from out of state to travel there for the procedure.

Those were not among the measures that Mr. Becerra announced. Instead, he said that at Mr. Biden’s direction he had instructed his agency to take steps such as making sure that federal insurance programs cover medication abortion in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Although the Hyde Amendment bars taxpayer funding for abortion, it includes exceptions for those three instances.

“We can’t meet scorched earth with milquetoast,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, an advocacy organization. “I am not asking for scorched earth, but I am saying you need to be willing to stop drawing within the lines. You need to be willing to take some risks.”

In addition to setting up abortion clinics on federal lands, Ms. Miller said the administration should figure out ways to support abortion clinics that are on the verge of closing, perhaps by repurposing them into logistical hubs to help women who need to cross state lines. About half the states are expected to allow bans or other limits on the procedure to take effect in the wake of the ruling, or already have.

Ms. Miller acknowledged that the administration does have limitations, and said she sympathized with Biden officials. But the nation is in a crisis, she said, adding, “Why not push the envelope?”

Mr. Becerra said his agency would work with the Justice Department to ensure that women have access to abortion pills — a pair of two different drugs, taken 24 to 48 hours apart and authorized for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — in places where state law conflicts with the judgment of the Food and Drug Administration, which has approved the drugs for use and determined that they are safe and effective.

The secretary did not go into detail. But in December, the F.D.A. approved a regulation allowing abortion pills to be prescribed during telemedicine visits and distributed by mail. Some advocates also want the F.D.A. to declare that its regulations pre-empt state laws banning abortion — a move that the Justice Department might have to defend in court.

It will also require hospital emergency rooms to comply with a federal law mandating that they stabilize patients experiencing a medical emergency — including by performing abortions, if necessary. And the agency will take steps to ensure that patients’ records are private, to keep state or local officials from identifying women who have had abortions.

In sounding a note of caution about what the administration can and cannot do, Mr. Becerra said there were still complex legal issues it needed to sort out to ensure it does not violate the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“It was a long decision and it did upend 50 years of precedent, and so you want to make sure that what you do is within the confines of the law,” Mr. Becerra said. “We’re not interested in going rogue.”

He called the ruling “despicable,” and at one point said he wanted to offer “my apologies” that the administration cannot do more.

The administration has studied, but remains skeptical about, the idea of allowing abortion clinics on federal enclaves like military bases and national parks — where state prosecutors lack jurisdiction — in states where abortion is now or will be a crime.

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, dismissed the idea on Tuesday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that it could have “dangerous ramifications” for women and doctors.

The problem, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations, is that the federal government could not ensure that doctors who are not federal employees performing official duties — and potentially patients — would not be at risk of prosecution.

That is because the Justice Department has the authority to prosecute certain state crimes. If a Republican were to win the presidency in 2024, his or her Justice Department could charge people with abortion-related crimes dating back to 2022, because the statute of limitations would not have run out. States could strip doctors of their medical licenses. And state prosecutors could try to charge people with related conduct that took place outside the enclave — like that of helping women get there — under a theory of aiding and abetting or conspiracy.

Offering financial help to women to cross state lines to get an abortion could also be problematic for the administration, because it might violate the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is at risk.

When asked on Tuesday if the Department of Health and Human Services might provide such financial help, Mr. Becerra said that once officials know “exactly what we believe we are able to do, and have the money to do, we will let you know.” He added, “But until then, what I could simply say to you is every option is on the table.”

In the wake of Friday’s ruling, members of Mr. Biden’s own party have become increasingly vocal in demanding that he take action. On Saturday, more than 30 Democratic members of the Senate sent him a letter telling him there was “no time to waste” and pressing him to use the “full force of the federal government” to protect access to abortion care.

“Now is the time for bold action to protect the right to an abortion,” they wrote, adding, “You have the power to fight back and lead a national response to this devastating decision.”

One area where the administration can act is in ensuring that women have access to emergency contraception — including so-called morning-after pills, like Plan B — and intrauterine devices. Both are common methods of contraception, but abortion opponents regard them as “abortifacients” and have tried in some states to restrict access to them.

Some family-planning clinics in states that are banning abortion say their supplies of Plan B are now running short, because women — fearful that the pills will be outlawed — are stocking up. Hailey Kramer, a nurse practitioner at Tri-Rivers Family Planning in Rolla, Mo., said on Monday that the clinic’s supplier is grappling with soaring demand and the pills have been back-ordered since a draft of the opinion overturning Roe was leaked last month.

Missouri is one of 13 states that had “trigger” laws banning abortion after Roe was overturned; Mr. Becerra was visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic in the state when abortion suddenly became illegal there. Missouri is also one of four states that has excluded Planned Parenthood, a major provider of birth control, from Medicaid family planning programs that reimburse for such services.

Planned Parenthood has said the move violates federal law. Mr. Becerra said on Tuesday that he had directed the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to “make clear that family planning providers are able to participate in the Medicaid program.”

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World

Al Jazeera obtains image of bullet that killed its journalist | Israel-Palestine conflict News

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BREAKING,

Veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead last month in the West Bank while covering Israeli raids.

An investigation by Al Jazeera has obtained an image of the bullet used to kill the network’s journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The round was extracted from her head.

The photograph for the first time shows the type of ammunition used to kill the veteran Al Jazeera journalist in the occupied West Bank last month.

According to ballistic and forensic experts, the green-tipped bullet was designed to pierce armour and is used in a M4 rifle.

The green-tipped bullet was analysed using 3D models and according experts the round fired was 5.56mm calibre – the same used by Israeli forces. The bullet was designed and manufactured in the United States, experts said.

Palestinian assistant minister Ammar Hijazi told Al Jazeera the bullet will remain with the Palestinian government for further investigation.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Omar Shakir – Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch – said all evidence indicates the shot came from an Israeli soldier.

In what appeared to be an unprovoked assault at the Al Jazeera correspondent’s funeral days later, Israeli officers attacked pallbearers, which almost caused them to drop Abu Akleh’s coffin – an incident broadcast live that caused international outrage.

Abu Akleh, a longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was killed last month while covering Israeli army raids in the city of Jenin.

‘Trigger happy policies’

Abu Akleh was wearing a press vest and standing with other journalists when she was killed.

Sherif Mansour, MENA programme coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC that “the pattern” of killing Palestinian media workers “is well known”.

“We have documented at least 19 journalists who were killed by Israeli fire, some of them in the Gaza wars in vehicles marked as press in 2012 and 2014,” Mansour said.

“Some of them were also killed by Israeli snipers while wearing vests with press signs, away from any threatening situation, two of them in 2018. Clearly we have a problem here of trigger happy policies that allows this to continue.”

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said for Palestinians their version of events is being “confirmed by so many investigations”, including the latest one by Al Jazeera.

“Palestinians have been saying from day one that they know that the bullet that hit Shireen came from Israeli soldiers. The witnesses, the videos that we’ve seen from Palestinians who were there, show there were no Palestinian fighters around the area where Shireen was in,” Ibrahim said.

“Palestinians are seeking now is justice and accountability.”

A dual Palestinian-American national, Abu Akleh was one of Al Jazeera’s first field correspondents, joining the network in 1997.

Ori Givati, a former Israeli soldier now with the advocacy group Breaking the Silence, said the round that was analysed was a “very common bullet”.

“It is the bullet that most [Israeli] soldiers use during their service. This investigation into Shireen’s killing is extremely important, but we also have to remember these incidents happen on a weekly basis,” he told Al Jazeera.

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Science

Inside the final days of the dinosaurs before they were wiped out by a Jurassic ‘bullet’ the size of Mount Everest

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DINOSAURS roamed the Earth for millions of years – until one day, 66 million years ago, an asteroid the size of Mount ­Everest struck the planet, bringing their almost instant annihilation.

Now a landmark new BBC documentary, Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough, uses state-of-the-art special effects to recreate in extraordinary detail, hour by hour, the creatures’ final 24 hours.

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An asteroid the size of Mount Everest wiped out the dinosaurs 66million years agoCredit: Getty

Palaeontologist and Manchester University graduate Robert DePalma has spent years searching a prehistoric dinosaur “graveyard” in the hills of North Dakota in the US.

The fossil site – which he has named Tanis after the Egyptian city excavated in the Indiana Jones film Raiders Of The Lost Ark – may be 2,000 miles from where the meteorite hit in the Chicxulub Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

But Robert, who seems to style himself like Indiana Jones, believes the creatures were swept to their deaths in a tsunami, then entombed in sediment, which explains why they are so well preserved.

From the embryo of a flying pterosaur in its egg, to a dinosaur fossil that may have been killed on the day the extinction asteroid hit, we reveal the amazing finds the team unearthed.

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Beautifully preserved footprints left by the prehistoric creatures are now being unearthed by RobertCredit: BBC

IT’S not just the discovery of fossilised animal remains that is adding to our knowledge of the period just before the dinosaurs died out.

Beautifully preserved footprints left by the prehistoric creatures are now being unearthed by Robert, and are also providing clues.

His team have discovered a number of footprints including one 30cm-long specimen that is believed to have belonged to a duck-billed dinosaur.

Robert says: “They would have been very common in the Cretaceous period. They ate the plants in the area and they got very large – 30ft long.”

One track is particularly well preserved.

Robert says: “You even see a nail print at the tips of the toes, so the little toenails dug into the mud.

“I love this one.”

Robert’s prized footprint features three toes and is longer than it is wide, so it is likely to belong to a carnivorous dinosaur.

Sir David said: “Hell Creek is well known for one carnivore in particular – T-Rex. This footprint is too small for an adult T-Rex but it’s possible it was made by a young one.”

T-REX TOOTH

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Sir David Attenborough holds the tooth of an adult T-RexCredit: BBC

ANOTHER exciting discovery made by Robert at Tanis is the crown of a tooth.

Sir David explains: “Its shape and serrated edge are indications it comes from an adult T-Rex.”

It was found lodged in the spine of a hadrosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur, proving that it hunted live prey.

Sir David added: “Bite marks found on T-Rex bones show that they also ate other T-Rexes.”

FOSSILISED TURTLE IMPALED BY A STAKE

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Robert’s team used liquid nitrogen to help free the fossil of a turtleCredit: BBC

ROBERT and his team used ultra-cold liquid nitrogen to help free the complete fossil of a turtle.

It’s a heart-stopping moment but the team manages to get the specimen out in one piece.

Evidence points to the turtle having been impaled by a wooden stake – possibly a tree branch – as the impact of the asteroid caused a tsunami of destruction that swept across the planet.

LEG OF THESCELOSAURUS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN KILLED BY ASTEROID

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Robert’s team found the leg of a thescelosaurus, complete with surviving scaly skinCredit: BBC

ROBERT and his team face a race against the clock to excavate a mass dinosaur graveyard.

A heavy storm is heading their way and if they do not move fast, precious evidence could be washed away – and lost for ever.

After hours of painstaking work, they are stunned to discover what is thought to be a one-of-a-kind specimen – the fossilised leg of a dinosaur that may have been killed on that fateful day the asteroid hit.

The leg, complete with surviving scaly skin, is later analysed by Professor Paul Barrett, head of Fossil Vertebrates at London’s Natural History Museum, who reveals it belonged to a plant-eating thescelosaurus.

He said: “This looks like an animal whose leg has simply been ripped off really quickly. There’s no evidence on the leg of disease, there are no obvious pathologies, there’s no trace of the leg being scavenged, such as bite marks or bits missing.

“It could well be that this was an animal that was there, being tumbled around, in its death throes in that river as a result of the asteroid impact.”

SKIN FROM A TRICERATOPS

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Sir David looks at the skin of a triceratopsCredit: BBC

TRICERATOPS bones are a relatively common discovery at the site in Hell Creek but recovering fossilised skin in good condition – as the team find on one specimen they unearth – is very rare.

Sir David says: “The size and the patterning of the scales, together with the age and the location of the rocks where it was found, strongly suggests this was from a triceratops.

“The brown colour contains traces of organic material, so it might even be possible from this to work out which pigments were in it.

“Finding and studying such well-preserved fossils helps palaeontologists build a much more detailed picture of how these creatures lived.”

FOSSILISED EGG

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Pterosaurs’s eggs were soft like a turtle’s, and not hard like most dino eggsCredit: BBC

PTEROSAURS were winged creatures that lived among dinosaurs – though they are not classed as dinosaurs themselves – becoming extinct around the same time.

Sir David says: “Male pterosaurs usually had crests, while the females didn’t, so crests may have been used in courtship displays.”

And we now have an indication where female pterosaurs laid their eggs, because evidence suggests one laid hers in the soft, sandy river bank at Tanis.

Paleobiologist Dr Victoria Egerton, a researcher and professor at Manchester University, discovers the shell is soft, like a turtle’s, and not hard like most dino eggs.

Very little is known about this type of pterosaur, the azhdarchid, and Dr Egerton says of the new discovery: “They were much more reptilian than bird-like and this can potentially tell us more about the environment these eggs were laid in.”

Sir David adds that the sandy soil at Tanis would have been just soft enough for hatchlings to dig themselves out.

Robert adds: “This probably had a wingspan of maybe 15ft. It’s easy to picture something like that hatching and later fluttering out, almost like a little bat.”

‘BULLET’ THAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS

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Tiny spherule particles in some fish gills contained iron, chromium and nickelCredit: BBC

SPECIALIST scans back in the UK reveal something remarkable about one of the tiny spherule particles found in some fish gills. It contains iron, chromium and nickel.

Robert says: “The abundance of the three all together matches what you’d expect to see in a meteoritic body. That doesn’t match what you’d usually have down here.

“This could be a piece of the Chicxulub asteroid.”

Professor Phil Manning, chair of Natural History at Manchester University, adds: “This could be a piece of the bullet that killed the dinosaurs.”

FISH THAT ABSORBED IMPACT DEBRIS FROM ASTEROID AND AMBER RESIN

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Robert’s team found hundreds of fossilised fish whose gills contain tiny clay balls that suggest they died soon after the asteroid hitCredit: BBC

AMONG the thick layer of rock at Tanis, Robert and his team find hundreds of fossilised fish whose gills contain tiny clay balls that suggest they died soon after the asteroid hit.

Known as ejecta spherules, they formed from rocks that were flung into the air by the impact of the asteroid before raining down and becoming trapped inside the fish gills.

Over millions of years, these tiny beads of molten glass have turned into clay, and Robert says: “They give us a fingerprint of where they came from.”

But to find evidence of what happened that day, he needs to find one that hasn’t turned to clay – so the team search for a spherule encased in fossilised amber.

Sir David says: “Anything covered by the resin would be frozen in an amber time capsule. A spherule preserved in amber could be analysed to see if it comes from the Chicxulub impact.”

They find two preserved spherules, and analysis by Manchester University’s Professor Manning finds powerful evidence Tanis and Chicxulub are linked.

Robert says: “Once you have that link and you know what impact affected Tanis, then you essentially know that everything buried in those sediments are linked to the last day of the Cretaceous.”

  •  Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough airs tonight on BBC1 at 6.30pm.

REAL-LIFE INDY DIGS UP ‘NEW’ DINOSAUR

IN his battered brown fedora and khaki shirt with a sheathed dagger hanging from his belt, dinosaur hunter Robert DePalma is every inch the modern-day Indiana Jones.

The 40-year-old paleontologist has spent much of his adult life digging for answers on the apocalypse that wiped out the prehistoric creatures 66million years ago.

Born in Florida, DePalma inherited a ­fascination with bones and teeth from his orthodontist dad and great-uncle Anthony, an orthopaedic surgeon and the father of renowned film director Brian DePalma.

As a three-year-old, Robert would examine bones left after family meals. When he was given a fragment of dinosaur bone at the age of four, he showed it to Anthony.

“He taught me all those little knobs and rough patches on a bone had names,” DePalma told the New Yorker. “I was captivated.”

A PhD student at the University of Manchester, he began excavating the North Dakota site Hell Creek in 2012.

Among his incredible finds there are a new species of dinosaur – the dakotaraptor – and the bones of dinosaurs that perished when a giant ­asteroid slammed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula.

He shuns modern tools, preferring to dig with a World War Two bayonet given to him by his uncle, and dental tools donated by his dad.

After his latest finds at Hell Creek, and his collaboration with David Attenborough, the maverick dinosaur hunter could soon be the subject of his own Hollywood movie.

Time to give cousin Brian a call?



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