COVID-19 vaccine scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine; new Supreme Court term begins; ‘PAW Patrol’ leads box office | Hot off the Wire podcast

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STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and could be used in the future to create other shots. Katalin Karikó is a professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Drew Weissman the director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations at the University of Pennsylvania. The panel said they were awarded the prize Monday for “their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has named Democratic strategist and Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign adviser Laphonza Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death. Newsom is fulfilling his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat became open. The long-serving Democratic senator died Thursday after a series of illnesses. Butler leads Emily’s List, a political organization that supports women who favor abortion rights. Butler lives in Maryland but owns a home in California and is expected to reregister to vote there. Newsom had faced pressure from some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who’s already running for the seat.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court justices are taking the bench for the first time since late June. Their new term begins Monday with ethics concerns swirling around the court. The only case being argued Monday concerns the meaning of the word “and” in a federal law dealing with prison terms for low-level drug dealers. The length of thousands of sentences a year is at stake. The court also is expected to get rid of hundreds of appeals that accumulated over the summer. The term is shaping up as an important one for social media as the court grapples with applying older laws and rulings to the digital age.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New polling finds America’s college campuses are seen as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech. Polling from the University of Chicago and the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 47% of adult Americans say liberals are free to express their views on college campuses, while 20% say the same of conservatives. Free speech debates have roiled campuses in recent years, with conflicts arising over conservative guest speakers. Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed bills limiting public colleges from teaching topics considered divisive. The poll finds 30% of Americans say states should be allowed to restrict what state universities teach.

MOREAU, N.Y. (AP) — Police were searching for a missing 9-year-old girl who had been camping with her family in upstate New York. Charlotte Sena was last seen on Saturday evening in Moreau Lake State Park, about 35 miles north of Albany. Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters that the girl had been riding her bike around a loop in the bucolic park around dinnertime with other children when she decided to ride one last loop by herself. Her parents became alarmed when the fourth grader failed to come back after 15 minutes. Police said it was possible she was abducted. The more than 100 searchers Sunday included police, forest rangers and civilians.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will open this week a global gathering of Catholic bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the church. It’s a meeting where women, their voices and their votes, will take center stage for the first time. Francis earlier this year agreed to let women and laypeople vote alongside bishops at the synod, putting the laity and hierarchy on equal ground. Supporters say that as a result of this, the gathering, which starts on Wednesday, is a watershed moment for the Catholic Church and quite possibly the most consequential thing Francis will have undertaken as pope. The meeting runs through Oct. 29, and will be followed by a second session next year.

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter put off his usual Sunday practice of watching church services online to instead celebrate his 99th birthday with his wife, Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Plains. The gathering will take place in the same one-story structure where the Carters lived before he was first elected as a state senator in 1962. Carter’s family views it as a way to honor his personal legacy. But tributes have come from around the world, with celebrities and political figures wearing “Jimmy Carter 99” caps as they offer video messages to the former president. The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum and The Carter Center hosted a full weekend of festivities, including a naturalization ceremony Sunday for 99 new U.S. citizens on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The unsolved killing of rapper Tupac Shakur has taken a major turn. Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested Friday morning and indicted on a murder charge. The case returned to the spotlight in July when Nevada authorities served a search warrant this week in connection with the rap star’s shooting death. The renewed activity comes nearly 30 years after Shakur was gunned down on Sept. 7, 1996. Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, releasing hit records while he was alive as well as posthumously. Friday’s arrest reopens, again, one of the most infamous killings in hip-hop history.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ahead of Dustin Lynch’s sixth studio album, “Killed the Cowboy,” the 38-year-old country star sensed some inner conflict. He had achieved many of his goals; he spent the last decade securing country radio hits and ranking in a cumulative billions of streams. The question became, what next? Should he settle down and, figuratively kill his interior cowboy? “Where do I want to be in five, 10, 20, 30 years?” he told AP. That question isn’t exactly answered on the record, but no vulnerability is left unexplored across it: from the sole collaboration with Jelly Roll, “Chevrolet,” a reimagination of Dobie Gray’s 1973 hit “Drift Away” to playful tracks like “Honky Tonk Heartbreaker” and “George Strait Jr.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two helicopters zoomed through the starlit skies before producing spotlights over a Las Vegas desert and U2 frontman Bono, who kneeled to ground while singing “Vertigo.” This scene may seem customary, but the visuals were created by floor-to-ceiling graphics inside the immersive Sphere. It was one of the several impressive moments during U2’s “UV Achtung Baby” first residency show at the high-tech, globe-shaped venue, which opened Friday night. The legendary rock band performed for two hours inside the massive,state-of-the-art spherical venue. Throughout the night, U2 took 18,000 attendees on a musical journey accompanied by a plethora of attractive visuals.

NEW YORK (AP) — After several quiet weeks in movie theaters, four films entered wide release over the weekend. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” came out the top dog, with $23 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The performances of all four films – “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” “Saw X,” “The Creator” and “Dumb Money” – told a familiar story at the box office. What worked? Horror and animated franchises. What didn’t? Originality and comedy. “Saw X” managed to bounce back from a franchise low with an opening weekend of $18 million. “The Creator,” made for $80 million, debuted with a modest $14 million. The GameStop stock comedy “Dumb Money” disappointed with $3.5 million in nationwide expansion.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has presided over a ceremony to create 21 new cardinals. They include key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy. With the ceremony Francis has further expanded his influence on the College of Cardinals who will one day elect his successor. Nearly three-quarters of the voting-age “princes of the church” owe their red hats to the Argentine Jesuit. Among the new cardinals is the controversial new head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. Leaders of the church in geopolitical hotspots like Hong Kong, Jerusalem and South Sudan filled out the roster. Francis said their variety and geographic diversity would serve the church like musicians in an orchestra.

Footage from deep in the Pacific Ocean has given the first detailed look at three World War II aircraft carriers that sank in the pivotal Battle of Midway. The video could help solve mysteries about the days-long barrage in 1942 that marked a shift in control of the Pacific theater from Japanese to U.S. forces. Remote submersibles operating 3 miles below the surface conducted extensive archeological surveys in September of the U.S.S. Yorktown, as well as the Akagi and Kaga, two of the four Japanese aircraft carriers destroyed. The imagery is expected to provide insight into conflicting reports about what happened in the battle.

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NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.

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Thousands of asylum seekers are arriving on the southern border of the United States.

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You can now stay in Shrek’s humble abode, nestled among the hills of the Scottish Highlands, for zero dollars a night.

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A closer look at the ancient sport of dragon boat racing which is getting a new lease of life at Hangzhou Asian Games.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its winter predictions for the 2023-2024 season and they are predicting an El…

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