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15 MILAN (AP) — Milanese turned out in all their finery for La Scala's gala season opener of Verdi's “Macbeth” in a fully seated theater, a welcome return after the pandemic made last year's premiere a televised-only affair and as many European theaters remain closed. Masked guests packed the opera house to capacity, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella in the royal box festooned with pink and red roses. Fashion stalwart Giorgio Armani, senator-for-life Liliana Segre and La Scala's own, principal dancer Roberto Bolle, also attended Tuesday's gala. The appreciative crowd showered flowers from the La Scala's tiered balconies on the opera's stars, baritone Luca Salsi, who sang the title role, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as the conniving Lady Macbeth, Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov as Banquo and Italian tenor Francesco Meli as Macduff. But La Scala’s strictly …

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4 Pfizer said Wednesday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine may offer important protection against the new omicron variant even though the initial two doses appear significantly less effective. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said that while two doses may not be protective enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased by 25-fold people's levels of virus-fighting antibodies against the omicron variant. Blood samples taken a month after a booster showed people harbored levels of omicron-neutralizing antibodies that were similar to amounts proven protective against earlier variants after two doses. Scientists don't yet know how big a threat the omicron variant really is. Currently the extra-contagious delta variant is responsible for most of the COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and other countries. But the omicron variant, discovered late last month, carries an unusually large number of mutations and scientists are …

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Last week, I went to Disneyland . It was by no means perfect. Rides broke down — a lot — but when they worked, things were pretty damn smooth. The dreaded stand-by line for Rise of the Resistance posted a 75-minute wait; in 45 minutes, I was done riding it entirely. It was a similar situation at the Spider-Man Web Slingers attraction: long posted wait time, quick actual trip through the queue. I’d never experienced Disneyland without FastPass included in the price of admission. From the time of my first visit at 12 years old, my theme park routine was to rush to the Indiana Jones FastPass kiosk at rope drop. There, I’d get the little paper slip with a return time printed on it. When my return time arrived, I made my way to the ride, bounding through the expedited FastPass queue, cutting the long wait to about 10 minutes. This trip, I was worried about losing hours of precious, expensive vacation time to lines. But after three days in the parks, I was pleasantly surprised. It …

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Pfizer and BioNTech announced Wednesday that their coronavirus vaccine appears to provide strong protection against the omicron variant when a booster is received in addition to its initial two doses. The companies said preliminary studies show three doses of the vaccine neutralize the omicron variant. “Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine,” Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, said. ADVERTISEMENT “Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he added. Those who have only two doses of the vaccine experienced a “more than a 25-fold reduction" in the "neutralization titers” that are produced by vaccines to help fight off a COVID-19 infection, the …

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Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the Winter Olympics to be moved from Beijing during an appearance on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday. The Florida Republican criticized corporate sponsors of the games for valuing the opportunity to make money over human rights. He also criticized the Biden administration for its approach to U.S. participation in the Winter Olympics. “Whether it’s the NBA, or whether it’s Nike, or whether it’s Delta, they’re all focused on how they make more money,” he said. “Heck with human rights. Now, they would like to get their rights, and they want to criticize everything that happens in this country. But God forbid, they do anything that would impact their ability to make a profit.” “So we, and by the way, the Biden administration, what a joke,” Scott added. “I mean, this is the bare minimum to say they’re not going to send diplomats. They need they need to be clear. These Olympics should never be held in China. They should be moved. They …

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Pat Gelsinger is CEO of Intel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. For almost a year, US companies and consumers have had to navigate a global chip shortage. Even among Covid-19 disruptions, this shortage stands out as uniquely impactful — semiconductors are a critical part of every digital device, powering our phones, cars, hospitals and factory floors. America's ability to address the chip shortage is limited. Domestic chipmaking capacity has been declining for decades, as subsidies from other countries continue to drive production elsewhere. Our country's economic security depends on reliable access to semiconductors — access that requires near-term investment in our capacity and capability to produce more chips. Federal support would even the playing field and unlock tens of billions of dollars in private investment here at home. That's why Congress must fund the CHIPS for America Act , which will invest $52 billion in …

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London (CNN Business) TUI ( TUIFF ) says a surge in Covid-19 infections and the Omicron variant is taking its toll on winter holiday bookings. Europe's biggest travel company said on Wednesday it had been seeing "positive momentum" in bookings but that had weakened because of "the increased media coverage of rising [coronavirus] incident rates and the emergence of new Omicron variant." The company said that if "current sentiment prevails," it would likely only operate around 60% of pre-pandemic capacity, towards the lower end of where it had hoped to be. Bookings for this winter were currently at 62% of levels seen in 2018-2019, it added. "In light of recent trends, capacity will likely be modified towards the lower end of our winter capacity plans of between 60% and 80%. We expect the current short-term booking behavior to continue," TUI said in its annual report . Covid-19 infections have been rising in some of TUI's most important …

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New York (CNN Business) American companies' search for workers didn't get any easier this fall. In October, the nation's available jobs unexpectedly rose to 11 million, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Wednesday. Even though that was short of the 11.1 million high from July, it was still far more than the 10.4 million economists had predicted, which would have marked a small decrease from the prior month. Instead, job openings rose by more than 400,000. Leisure and hospitality, particularly hotels and food services, registered by far the biggest increase in available jobs. Meanwhile, hires stood at 6.5 million in October, underlining that the worker shortage problem is still alive and kicking. Read More The number of US workers who quit their job decreased by more than 200,000 that month to 4.2 million, down from a record high in September. The number of layoffs was more or less unchanged at 1.4 million. …

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Locked in an expensive Republican primary for U.S. senator against a wealthy, better-known opponent, Ted Cruz loaned his campaign over $1 million in 2012. The cash helped him defeat Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a runoff that essentially secured Cruz a seat in the Senate. But it came at a personal financial cost: Cruz has never been able to recoup $545,000 of that loan, according to a Federal Election Commission report. A 2002 law bans victorious federal candidates from using more than $250,000 raised after an election to pay back loans they gave their own campaigns prior to Election Day. Congress passed it to help prevent the appearance of quid pro quo corruption. The idea behind the limit is that money collected after an election is no longer helping a candidate win office. Instead, the funds go to the electee’s pocket. Cruz recouped a good chunk of that 2012 loan from money received before Election Day. But when Cruz’s campaign determined that the loans could not be fully …

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6 At the beginning of ABC's latest "Live in Front of a Studio Audience" special on Tuesday night, in which celebrities re-enacted episodes of classic sitcoms, executive producer and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel offered a reminder for the audience: "The show is live," he said. "If it goes off the rails, it goes off the rails." And yet ... things did not go off the rails. A group of A-list stars joined together to perform two episodes of "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes," which both debuted in the late 1970s - and for the most part, all went smoothly. If you missed it, here were some of the highlights from the 90-minute special. - There were several surprise guests. ABC confirmed the celebrity participants last week, announcing that the cast for "The Facts of Life" would include Jennifer Aniston as Blair; Gabrielle Union as Tootie; Kathryn Hahn as Jo; Allison Tolman as Natalie; and Ann Dowd as Mrs. Garrett, the …

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