Gas prices in San Francisco last week.Jason Henry for The New York Times
“Gas prices and Covid are complicating Thanksgiving travel.
Millions of American drivers have acutely felt the recent surge in gas prices, which last month hit their highest level since 2014. The national average for a gallon of gas is $3.41, which is $1.29 more than it was a year ago.
Just 32 percent of Americans plan to drive for Thanksgiving, down from 35 percent last year, at the height of the pandemic, and 65 percent in 2019, according to a survey from the fuel savings platform GasBuddy.
Holiday travel brings far-flung people together, and respiratory viruses circulate easily. Experts are advising that mask mandates stay in place even as their end is in sight. ‘Maybe in February, we can say goodbye to masks,’ one researcher told The Times. The U.S. has made several moves over the past week to shift the course of the pandemic.” Read more at New York Times
Protesting against Covid restrictions in Vienna on Saturday. Lisa Leutner/Associated Press
“In Europe, again the pandemic’s epicenter, new restrictions set off protests.
In Austria, which is averaging 10,000 cases a day, a lockdown begins tomorrow and a nationwide vaccination mandate is set to come into force in February. Austrians took to the streets yesterday in response. In Vienna, skirmishes with law enforcement officers broke out as thousands protested.
In Germany, where case numbers have soared in recent weeks, largely among children, teenagers and unvaccinated adults, some states with the highest levels of infection will also see lockdowns. Even Portugal, which has one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates, is preparing to add restrictions.” Read more at New York Times
“President Biden and members of his inner circle have reassured allies in recent days that he plans to run for reelection in 2024, as they take steps to deflect concern about the 79-year-old president’s commitment to another campaign and growing Democratic fears of a coming Republican return to power.
The efforts come as the broader Democratic community has become increasingly anxious after a bruising six-month stretch that has seen Biden’s national approval rating plummet more than a dozen points, into the low 40s, amid growing concerns about inflation, Democratic infighting in Washington and faltering public health efforts to move beyond the covid-19 pandemic.
The message is aimed in part at tamping down the assumption among many Democrats that Biden may not seek reelection given his age and waning popularity, while also effectively freezing the field for Vice President Harris and other potential presidential hopefuls.” Read more at Washington Post
President Biden is seen at the White House on Nov. 18. At a virtual fundraiser this month, Biden told a small group of donors that he plans to seek a second term. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
“TEL AVIV — A Palestinian man opened fire on a group of Israelis near a holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday morning, killing one and injuring four others, according to Israeli security forces. Police said they fatally shot the assailant within 32 seconds of the start of the incident, the second attack in the area within the week.
Israeli Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev said the assailant, 42, is an Islamic preacher and known member of Hamas’s political wing, who had come to pray on a daily basis at the flashpoint site known by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Entrance to the Old City was immediately closed and is being investigated as a crime scene.” Read more at Washington Post
“President Biden released a statement Saturday mourning the loss of more than 40 transgender Americans who died by violence in 2021.
“Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we mourn those we lost in the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans, as well as the countless other transgender people — disproportionately Black and brown transgender women and girls — who face brutal violence, discrimination, and harassment,” Biden said.
According to LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 47 transgender individuals have been killed in 2021 by violent means, surpassing the record number of 44 deaths in 2020.
Black transgender women made up many of the deaths in 2021.” Read more at The Hill
“A passenger's gun went off in an ‘accidental discharge’ at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's main security checkpoint Saturday afternoon, causing panic at the busy airport and prompting an investigation.
The discharge happened at about 1:30 p.m. at the airport's security screening area, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
A transportation safety officer discovered a ‘prohibited item’ while X-raying a passenger's bag at the main checkpoint and began a bag search, the TSA said in a statement. As the officer opened the compartment containing the prohibited item, the passenger ‘lunged into the bag and grabbed a firearm, at which point it discharged,’ the TSA said.
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport officials called the incident an ‘accidental discharge.’
The passenger then ran out of the airport exit with the firearm, according to the TSA. Airport officials said there was no active shooter at the airport. Officials identified the suspect as 42-year-old Kenny Wells and said they are ‘actively pursuing this individual’ at a press conference Saturday.” Read more at USA Today
“In 2017, then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg was filling potholes in South Bend, Indiana. Now, he will oversee the largest cash infusion into the nation’s transportation infrastructure in a generation.
The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law Nov. 15 includes hundreds of billions of dollars that Buttigieg will oversee as the nation’s transportation secretary, a role he began less than 10 months ago.
By itself, the discretionary funding that his department will dish out to repair roads, rebuild bridges and expand public transit eclipses what any previous U.S. Department of Transportation secretary has had at their disposal, several times over.
It’s a long way from 2017. Back then, Buttigieg’s city spent about $175 million – with an ‘m’ – on the entirety of its government operations. When the freezing and thawing of a northern Indiana winter opened craters on South Bend’s roads in January that year, Buttigieg joined a road crew to personally repair potholes.” Read more at USA Today
“The Rittenhouse trial is over. The divisions remain.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s friend, Dominick Black, faces two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 causing death, and could face up to six years in prison if convicted. But Rittenhouse’s acquittal helps his case, experts say — and highlights the failure of efforts to implement even modest new gun restrictions.
Attention now turns to the three men on trial for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia; closing arguments are scheduled for tomorrow. Though they chased him, they are claiming self-defense because, they say, Arbery tried to get control of a shotgun one of them was carrying. As with the Rittenhouse case, the trial raises questions of how self-defense laws will hold up as guns proliferate.” Read more at New York Times
The House narrowly passed a $2 trillion spending bill on Friday.Tom Brenner for The New York Times
“The House’s approval of a sweeping social policy bill after weeks of fits and starts notched another win for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Her work isn’t done, however. The Senate now gets a chance to reshape the measure, and Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator, is still demanding major changes, such as the jettisoning of a new four-week paid family and medical leave program that Pelosi has made a top priority.
But Manchin has privately expressed an openness to embracing a costlier plan than the one he initially insisted upon, and the speaker now says she is confident that it will re-emerge from the Senate mostly intact.
How much does it cost? It’s complicated.” Read more at New York Times
“On both sides of America’s abortion debate, activists are convinced that Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme Court ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion — is imperiled as never before.
Yet no matter how the current conservative-dominated court handles pending high-profile abortion cases — perhaps weakening Roe, perhaps gutting it completely — there will be no monolithic, nationwide change. Fractious state-by-state battles over abortion access will continue.
Roe's demise would likely prompt at least 20 Republican-governed states to impose sweeping bans; perhaps 15 Democratic-governed states would reaffirm support for abortion access.
More complicated would be politically divided states where fights over abortion laws could be ferocious — and likely become a volatile issue in the 2022 elections.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The jury resumes deliberations in the civil trial against the organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It finished its first day of deliberations without reaching a verdict. The August 2017 event to oppose the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee descended into violence that killed one person and injured dozens.” Read more at CNN
“Elizabeth Holmes returns to the stand in the Theranos trial.
The 37-year-old founder of the failed blood testing start-up spent only an hour on the stand before the court closed on Friday. Her lawyers have argued that she was merely a young, naïve, ambitious founder who relied too much on others who gave her bad advice.
Holmes has been charged with 11 counts of defrauding investors about Theranos’s business and what its technology could do.
Her lawyers indicated that her testimony is likely to take up Monday and Tuesday this week. That means that the prosecution’s cross-examination, which is expected to be lengthy, won’t begin until after Thanksgiving.” Read more at New York Times
Peng Shuai has won two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles.Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times
“Where is Peng Shuai?
In a social media post earlier this month, the Chinese tennis star accused a former vice premier of sexually assaulting her. After the allegation, the Chinese government removed almost all references to Peng on social media within the country, and Peng disappeared from public life.
Yesterday, the editor of a state-run newspaper shared two questionable videos on Twitter of a person at a restaurant who appeared to be Peng. But the seemingly unnatural conversation in one video and the unclear location and dates of both raised questions about Peng’s safety and whether she was appearing in the videos of her own free will.
The case has prompted the women’s tennis tour to rethink its heavy focus on China, where it has threatened to pull events if it cannot verify that she is safe and that her allegations are investigated.” Read more at New York Times
“Former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III must appear in court after missing a scheduled alcohol test last week. The judge ordered him to return to court after receiving a report that Ruggs missed a required breath test. As a condition of his bail, Ruggs was ordered to wear an ankle device, abstain from alcohol and surrender his passport.” Read more at CNN
“London (CNN)Manchester United have confirmed the departure of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, one day after the club suffered a humiliating 4-1 Premier League defeat at Watford.
Solskjaer has overseen a disappointing start to the season, with the club sitting in seventh place in the Premier League. They have lost four of their past five league matches, including a 5-0 home thumping at the hands of rivals Liverpool.
The former United striker took over as an interim boss in 2018 and was subsequently given a permanent contract, but his position has been under scrutiny for several weeks.” Read more at CNN
“In an effort to make this holiday season the best one yet for his family of five, Michael Moffa vowed to have their Christmas lights professionally installed and not miss out like they had the past two years.
To do so, Moffa agreed for a Tampa company to put up their lights earlier than usual on Nov. 6, nearly three weeks before Thanksgiving, as it was the only time the business had availability. The early holiday spirit had brought joy to the family this month - until they got a letter from their homeowners association threatening them with up to $1,000 in fines for putting up their lights too early and violating their HOA agreement.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The world’s largest topiary chicken, 64 feet from beak to feet, has been going up in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Mayor Jim Puckett hoped to attract tourists. But he was defeated recently, in an election in which the dollars and sense of the monumental fowl was at issue. Mayor Puckett defended his public art project to our producer, Gabriel Dunatov. ‘I'm doing an interview with NPR right now because of this silly chicken,’ he said. Really, Mr. Mayor, you don’t need a 64-foot chicken to get on NPR. But it helps.” Read more at NPR