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Liverpool sealed a historic win over Real Madrid to maintain their unbeaten run intact in the Champions League Liverpool extended their unbeaten run in the Champions League after a 2-0 win over Real Madrid. Arne Slot's team climbed to the top of the European competition after second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo. Caoimhin Kelleher saved a penalty in the second half, denying Kylian Mbappe the opportunity to equalise. Alisson , who is currently sidelined with injury, could be seen smirking from behind the bench as Kelleher got down to his left to deny the French superstar. Mohamed Salah also stepped up from the spot but saw his effort wide. The Reds, along with Atalanta and Inter Milan, remain the only teams unbeaten in the competition. Following the victory, Liverpool are two points clear of second-placed Inter Milan, who beat RB Leipzig 1-0 on Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Barcelona and Dortmund share the same 12 points in third and fourth place, respectively. As the hectic schedule is set to continue through next month, the ECHO has taken a look at Liverpool's upcoming league fixtures in all competitions. Manchester City (H) - Premier League - Sunday, December 1. Newcastle United (A) - Premier League - Wednesday, December 4. Everton (A) - Premier League - Saturday, December 7. Girona (A) - Champions League - Tuesday, December 10. Fulham (H) - Premier League - Saturday, December 14. Southampton (A) - Carabao Cup - Wednesday, December 18. Nonetheless, Liverpool are well placed to secure a place in the last-16, with games against Girona, Lille and PSV still to come in their final three fixtures in the Champions League . Their focus will now turn to the Premier League, however, with Pep Guardiola's City set to visit Anfield this weekend. Eight points separate the two sides following the Reds' impressive campaign under Slot so far.
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Unlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her health insurance covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the much-hyped medications didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13 pounds,” said Griffin, who watches her diet, drinks plenty of water and exercises regularly. “I’ve done everything right with no success. It’s discouraging.” In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of their body weight — up to 50 pounds or more in many cases. But roughly 10% to 15% of patients in those trials were “nonresponders” who lost less than 5% of their body weight. Now that millions of people have used the drugs, several obesity experts told The Associated Press that perhaps 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not respond well to the medications. It's a little-known consequence of the obesity drug boom, according to doctors who caution eager patients not to expect one-size-fits-all results. “It's all about explaining that different people have different responses,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital The drugs are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists because they mimic a hormone in the body known as glucagon-like peptide 1. Genetics, hormones and variability in how the brain regulates energy can all influence weight — and a person's response to the drugs, Stanford said. Medical conditions such as sleep apnea can prevent weight loss, as can certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids and contraceptives. “This is a disease that stems from the brain,” said Stanford. “The dysfunction may not be the same” from patient to patient. Despite such cautions, patients are often upset when they start getting the weekly injections but the numbers on the scale barely budge. “It can be devastating,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of the obesity treatment company FlyteHealth. “With such high expectations, there’s so much room for disappointment.” That was the case for Griffin, who has battled obesity since childhood and hoped to shed 70 pounds using Wegovy. The drug helped reduce her appetite and lowered her risk of diabetes, but she saw little change in weight. “It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “You want it to work like it does for everybody else.” The medications are typically prescribed along with eating behavior and lifestyle changes. It’s usually clear within weeks whether someone will respond to the drugs, said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Weight loss typically begins right away and continues as the dosage increases. For some patients, that just doesn't happen. For others, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea force them to halt the medications, Dushay said. In such situations, patients who were counting on the new drugs to pare pounds may think they’re out of options. “I tell them: It's not game over,” Dushay said. Trying a different version of the new class of drugs may help. Griffin, who didn't respond well to Wegovy, has started using Zepbound, which targets an additional hormone pathway in the body. After three months of using the drug, she has lost 7 pounds. “I'm hoping it's slow and steady,” she said. Other people respond well to older drugs, the experts said. Changing diet, exercise, sleep and stress habits can also have profound effects. Figuring out what works typically requires a doctor trained to treat obesity, Saunders noted. “Obesity is such a complex disease that really needs to be treated very comprehensively,” she said. “If what we’re prescribing doesn’t work, we always have a backup plan.” The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The United States and China have renewed a decades-old agreement on science and technology cooperation , officials from both countries said Friday, narrowing its scope and adding safeguards to address concerns about national security risks. The Science and Technology Agreement, originally signed in 1979, was the first accord between the two countries after they normalized diplomatic relations. It had historically been renewed roughly every five years, but U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns in about it recent years as China becomes a growing technological rival. The agreement, which was up for renewal in 2023, received two six-month extensions before lapsing on Aug. 27 of this year, and its continuation had been under negotiation for months. The State Department said Friday that the “modernized and strengthened” agreement had been extended for five years. It said the agreement sustains intellectual property protections, establishes new guardrails for protecting the safety and security of researchers, and “advances U.S. interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on transparency and data reciprocity.” The agreement covers only basic research and does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies, the department said. The Biden administration has imposed export controls on advanced semiconductor chips and restricted investment in other strategically sensitive fields in China such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, citing concerns that such technologies could aid China’s military modernization. The renewal of the agreement was also confirmed in a short statement Friday by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, which did not provide details. Supporters of the pact argued that failure to renew it would not only imperil government-to-government collaboration in vital areas such as climate change and public health, but also inhibit academic cooperation between the world’s two biggest economies. Science and technology cooperation has already been chilled by the China Initiative, a Trump-era national security program meant to counter intellectual property theft at universities and research institutions. The program, which has prompted multiple prominent Chinese researchers to leave the U.S., ended in 2022 after a string of failed prosecutions. Asian American advocacy groups said ethnic Chinese scientists were unfairly targeted by the program, which House lawmakers are seeking to revive . NBC News' Rae Wang contributed. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
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Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. The 39th president of the United States was a Georgia peanut farmer who sought to restore trust in government when he assumed the presidency in 1977 and then built a reputation for tireless work as a humanitarian. He earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Carter died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia. At age 52, Carter was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 1977, after defeating President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 general election. Carter left office on Jan. 20, 1981, following his 1980 general election loss to Ronald Reagan. Here's the latest: President Joe Biden will speak about Carter Sunday evening. The president will make his address from a hotel in St. Croix, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is on a holiday vacation with his family. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had one of the great love stories and political partnerships in U.S. presidential history. The former president sometimes called his wife, who died Nov. 19. 2023, “Rosie,” which is a good way to remember how her name actually is pronounced. It is “ROSE-uh-lyn,” not, repeat NOT, “RAHZ-uh-lyn.” They were married more than 77 years but their relationship went back even further. Jimmy’s mother, “Miss Lillian,” delivered Eleanor Rosalynn Smith at the Smith home in Plains on Aug. 18, 1927. The nurse brought her eldest child back a few days later to visit, meaning the longest-married presidential couple met as preschooler and newborn. She became his trusted campaign aide and White House adviser, surprising Washington by sitting in on Cabinet meetings. Then they traveled the world together as co-founders of The Carter Center. Most of the nation saw the former president for the last time at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral. Jason Carter is now the chairman of The Carter Center’s board of governors. He said his grandparents “never changed who they were” even after reaching the White House and becoming global humanitarians. He says their four years in Washington were just one period of putting their values into action and that the center his grandparents founded in Atlanta is a lasting “extension of their belief in human rights as a fundamental global force.” Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter traveled the world advocating for democracy and fighting disease, but Jason Carter said they weren’t motivated by pity, or arrogance that a former American president had all the answers — they ventured to remote places because they could “recognize these people.” They too were from “a 600-person village” and understood that even the poorest people “have the power ... the ability ... the knowledge and the expertise to change their own community.” As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is remembering Carter as a man steeped “in devotion to public service and peace.” The California Democrat said in a statement Sunday that Carter was committed to “honoring the spark of divinity within every person,” something she said manifested in “teaching Sunday school in his beloved Marantha Baptist Church, brokering the landmark Camp David Accords to pave the way to peace or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.” Pelosi also said Carter led “perhaps the most impactful post-presidency in history.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted in a post on X the special contribution Carter made by brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt and through his work with the Carter Center. “Motivated by his strong faith and values, President Carter redefined the post-presidency with a remarkable commitment to social justice and human rights at home and abroad,” Starmer said. To commemorate Carter’s death, officials with the Empire State Building said in a post on social media that the iconic New York City landmark would be lit in red, white and blue on Sunday night, “to honor the life and legacy” of the late former president. In a statement issued Sunday, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama said Carter’s beloved Maranatha Baptist Church “will be a little quieter on Sunday,s” but added that the late former president “will never be far away -- buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels.” Noting the “hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews” to see the former president teach Sunday school, as he did “for most of his adult life,” the Obamas listed Carter’s accomplishments as president. But they made special note of the Sunday school lessons, saying they were catalysts for people making a pilgrimage to the church. “Many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.” The longest-lived American president died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” The Carter Center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. In his 1975 book “Why Not The Best,” Carter said of himself: “I am a Southerner and an American, I am a farmer, an engineer, a father and husband, a Christian, a politician and former governor, a planner, a businessman, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, a canoeist, and among other things a lover of Bob Dylan’s songs and Dylan Thomas’s poetry.” A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. After he left office and returned home to his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia, Carter regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world. Former Vice President Al Gore praised Jimmy Carter for living “a life full of purpose, commitment and kindness” and for being a “lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan. concentrated on conflict resolution, defending democracy and fighting disease in the developing world. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, remains a leading advocate for action to fight climate change. Both won Nobel Peace Prizes. Gore said that “it is a testament to his unyielding determination to help build a more just and peaceful world” that Carter is often “remembered equally for the work he did as President as he is for his leadership over the 42 years after he left office.” During Gore’s time in the White House, President Bill Clinton had an uneasy relationship with Carter. But Gore said he is “grateful” for “many years of friendship and collaboration” with Carter. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remember Carter as a man who lived to serve others. “Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end." The statement recalled Carter's many achievements and priorities, including efforts “to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, make energy conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David." After he left office, the Clinton statement said, Carter continued efforts in "supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy; to his and Rosalynn’s devotion and hard work at Habitat for Humanity — he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world,” the statement said.
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Emotions were high following the Michigan Wolverines' 13-10 upset of No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday. The defeat put the Buckeyes in a precarious spot to make the Big Ten Championship Game, as Penn State and Indiana were given another opportunity to play Oregon on Dec. 7 depending on the outcome of their respective Week 14 games. Following the upset, some Wolverines players brought a flag onto the field at Ohio Stadium, which would cause a post game brawl Per CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello, Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer took away the Michigan flag. Police would use pepper spray on at least two Michigan players. "Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer rips away the Michigan flag and throws it amid the insanity after the game," Marcello wrote. "Cops. Pepper spray was even used. Two Michigan players were on the ground rubbing their faces. A photographer as well. Police later lined up at 50 to build a human wall." Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer rips away the Michigan flag and throws it amid the insanity after the game. Cops. Pepper spray was even used. Two Michigan players were on the ground rubbing their faces. A photographer as well. Police later lined up at 50 to build a human wall. pic.twitter.com/xANs878xe7 Video of the incident appears to show police used pepper spray on players who were trying to break up the scuffle. Fans on social media voiced their opinion on the matter, with many saying the police went too far. "They sprayed people who were trying to break up the fight too," wrote a fan. © Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images "Is it just me or did they use pepper spray on the ppl trying to calm the situation down," posted another. "They should lose their jobs," suggested a fan. "If this is true, then people need to be fired and prosecuted. Uncalled for in sports," posted one fan. "If true, they need to find the officers who did that and fire them, immediately," advocated a poster. "Well, that definitely seems like uncalled for abuse of power," wrote another. "I really hope they investigate the security officials who assaulted college football players with pepper spray. That’s horrible. Whoever did that should, at minimum, not be working a college football game." Related: Police Appear to Use Pepper Spray on Michigan, Ohio State Players During Brawl