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WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to make it easier for people to claim that they were injured by a Covid-19 vaccine and receive compensation.

Kennedy is set to start the process of compiling a list of injuries that are presumed to be caused by Covid shots. People with those conditions could then ask for compensation from the government. It’s not clear what conditions may make the list—and that’s something that outside experts are keeping a close eye on.

Kennedy has long been critical of vaccines, saying none have been adequately safety tested. He’s said that he plans to overhaul a similar, but separate program that provides compensation for individuals who claim injury by a vaccine recommended by the federal government.

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Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan kicked off the 2020s with his 2021 existential thriller Old , a unique horror movie that was conceptually and thematically among the richest films he’s made. For a director who has toyed with the lightly supernatural before, most notably in his breakout The Sixth Sense and his much-derided 2008 film The Happening , Old lets him work out something very different: a beach that causes rapid aging, forcing a family that’s hiding devastating news from their kids to confront mortality. Like many of Shyamalan’s films, it’s a story of parenthood and coming into contact with the unknown. Based on the French graphic novel Sandcastle , it’s also very odd, reminiscent of one of the greatest television shows of all time.

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Carrier says some customers still can’t connect to triple zero on its network. Follow today’s news live

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Victoria’s V/Line regional train network is still suffering the after-effects of yesterday morning’s Telstra outage.

According to an update early this morning, passenger services are still not operating – and that includes this morning’s peak services.

We advise passengers to please defer non-essential V/Line travel. We acknowledge this has been inconvenient to many people and thank passengers for their patience as work continues to safely restore services.

My office has received a report of a tragic death following an apparent failure to connect to Triple Zero during a life-or-death emergency amid Telstra’s nationwide outage today

This death of an elderly South Australian represents a devastating failure for their family. Our thoughts are with them.

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Follow-up Soulslike Mortal Shell 2 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on August 20, and I'm encouraged by the variety of disgusting bosses shown off in its new trailer.

Developer Cold Symmetry released a new trailer locking in the date and showing off the sequel's upgraded, grisly combat. Like the original game, Mortal Shell 2 is a third-person action RPG where you melee, parry, and now shotgun your way through hordes of Gothic enemies that are equal parts gross and majestic. As you explore a world that's said to be much larger this time around, you unlock eponymous Shells to equip on your primordial hero, changing their abilities and fighting style dramatically, a bit like channeling the spirits of past warriors.

The original Mortal Shell played and performed fine enough – that is, fine enough to give Cold Symmetry space to make a much more ambitious sequel that, so far, actually feels a lot better. The open beta (really, the demo) for Mortal Shell 2 is still available on Steam, and I was quite taken with it when I gave it a shot. The best demo experience is one that makes you hungry for the full game, and I was certainly disappointed when I remembered I was only playing a vertical slice.

In its early hours, Mortal Shell 2 sheds much of the clunk that saddled the first game and injects ranged weapons that make combat feel more dynamic. I'm the kind of Soulslike glutton who will clear just about anything with a half-decent parry, but I'm properly looking forward to this one after some hands-on time. More polished combat was basically all I was looking for, so if the game also bears out Cold Symmetry's bold promise of a gigantic, dungeon-filled world, this could end up being something special. It helps that it's only $50, too.

The "final game" from Half-Life 2 and Dishonored's late art director has been revealed: "The world's first Soulslike FPS," an apocalyptic Western at "the end of America."