“Days after its discovery, omicron is still whipsawing markets and adding another element of doubt into plans by governments to emerge from the pandemic.
After rallying yesterday on hopes the Covid-19 variant may produce only mild symptoms, U.S. and European equity futures slid along with Asian stocks after Moderna’s chief executive officer told the Financial Times that existing vaccines will struggle against the large number of mutations.
While the World Health Organization warned about a possible fresh surge in infections, U.S. President Joe Biden said it wasn’t a cause for panic, yet. In Germany, the incoming vice chancellor called for a nationwide ‘lockdown for the unvaccinated,’ noting cases were already surging even before omicron was detected.
The new variant has now been found in more than a dozen countries, and hard facts on how effective vaccines are against it won’t be known for weeks.
As Jason Gale explains, reports that omicron wasn’t causing serious illness need to be treated with caution because they may not reflect its severity across a broad range of people.
In South Africa, where the initial evidence comes from, infections appear to be hitting mainly the young, even toddlers, while more serious symptoms can take time to develop. Vaccines and prior infections may be providing some protection. Covid in general is more likely to be life-threatening to older people.
Thus the renewed urgency in providing boosters in developed nations and vaccines for those in poorer countries without access to shots. Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday pledged to supply another 1 billion doses to African countries.
Until epidemiological studies show how nasty omicron can be, expect anxious times ahead.” — Karl Maier Read more at Bloomberg
A Covid-19 safety sign at London’s Heathrow Airport. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
“JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement.
The court order said that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
The preliminary injunction by St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp applies to a coalition of suing states that includes Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. All those states have either a Republican attorney general or governor. Similar lawsuits also are pending in other states.” Read more at AP News
“Preliminary tests indicate the Covid-19 antibody drug cocktail from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. loses effectiveness against Omicron, the company said Tuesday, a sign that some products in an important class of therapies might need modifying if the new strain becomes widespread.
Separate testing of another authorized Covid-19 antibody drug cocktail, from Eli Lilly & Co., indicates it also isn’t as effective against Omicron, outside scientists said. Lilly said it is testing the new variant against its antibody treatment and wouldn’t speculate on what the results will be.
The findings are the early results of researchers’ race to assess the impact of the new Omicron variant on Covid-19 treatments that patients, doctors and hospitals have been relying on, as well as pills in development that have promised to keep people out of the hospital.
Researchers say some antibody therapies are likely to be especially vulnerable to Omicron because it contains mutations to the spike protein that the Regeneron and Lilly drugs target, while other drugs should hold up well because they attack elements of the virus unchanged in the variant.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Monday ordered a new high-level investigation into a U.S. airstrike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of women and children, the Pentagon said.
The investigation by Gen. Michael X. Garrett, the four-star head of the Army’s Forces Command, will examine the strike, which was carried out by a shadowy Special Operations unit called Task Force 9. It will also look into the military’s initial inquiries into the strike, Pentagon officials said.
General Garrett will have 90 days to review the inquiries and further investigate record-keeping errors, reports of civilian casualties, whether any violations of laws of war occurred, whether any recommendations from previous reviews were carried out, and whether anyone should be held accountable, the officials said.
Mr. Austin’s decision comes after a New York Times investigation this month that described allegations that top officers and civilian officials had sought to conceal the casualties from the airstrike. The attack, which took place near the Syrian town of Baghuz on March 18, 2019, was part of the final battle against Islamic State fighters in a shard of a once-sprawling religious state across Iraq and Syria. It was among the largest episodes of civilian casualties in the yearslong war against ISIS, but the U.S. military had never publicly acknowledged it.
The Times investigation showed that the death toll — 80 people — was almost immediately apparent to military officials. A legal officer flagged the bombing as a possible war crime that required an investigation. The Defense Department’s independent inspector general began an inquiry, but the report containing its findings was stalled and stripped of any mention of the strike.” Read more at New York Times“WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers will try to persuade a federal appeals court to stop Congress from receiving call logs, drafts of speeches and other documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol led by his supporters.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments Tuesday from lawyers for Trump and the House committee seeking the records as part of its investigation into the riot.
Trump’s attorneys want the court to reverse a federal judge’s ruling allowing the National Archives and Records Administration to turn over the records after President Joe Biden waived executive privilege. Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s claims that he could exert executive privilege overriding Biden, noting in part, ‘Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not president.’ The appeals court issued an administrative stay after Chutkan’s ruling to review the case.” Read more at AP News
“President Biden met with the CEOs of a number of major retailers and grocers to discuss supply chain concerns during the holiday season. Biden noted that despite ongoing labor shortages, shipping snarls and new Omicron variant worries, consumer spending is up and the retail outlook is better than it was last year. However, those challenges, along with materials shortages and trouble hiring workers, are shrinking the availability of some items both online and in stores. Experts say this may be the year to return to brick-and-mortar stores to avoid supply chain problems. In-store sales are predicted to rise by 8% this year -- to a 10-year high -- according to a real estate research firm.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol moved on Monday to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official involved in President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, setting a vote this week on recommending criminal charges for his refusal to cooperate with a subpoena from the panel.
The vote would be the second such confrontation between the committee and an ally of Mr. Trump since Congress began investigating the circumstances surrounding the Capitol riot, including the former president’s attempts to subvert the election. The House voted in October to recommend that another of Mr. Trump’s associates, Stephen K. Bannon, be charged with criminal contempt of Congress for stonewalling the inquiry. A federal grand jury subsequently indicted him on two counts that could carry up to two years behind bars in total.
The House committee issued a subpoena in October seeking testimony and records from Mr. Clark. In early November, he appeared before the panel but delivered a letter from his lawyer, Harry W. MacDougald, saying that Mr. Clark would not answer substantive questions.
The letter cited attorney-client privilege protecting Mr. Clark’s conversations with Mr. Trump and argued that the former Justice Department official was ‘duty bound not to provide testimony to your committee covering information protected by the former president’s assertion of executive privilege.’” Read more at New York Times
“Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is exiting the company he helped build at a time when its future has never been so uncertain.
Why it matters: The person who controls Twitter controls the de facto public square — with implications for politics, media and free speech.
The big picture: Twitter is in the midst of transforming from an ad-based social network, focused on text, to a subscription-based platform centered around smaller communities and multimedia, reports Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer.
In a resignation letter, Dorsey said it's ‘severely limiting and a single point of failure’ when founders lead tech firms.
Dorsey is expected to focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain — both being pioneered at Square, where he is CEO.
Behind the scenes, tension has been brewing between Dorsey and stakeholders who argued he was a part-time CEO.
Twitter staffers told Axios they felt like Dorsey was never fully committed to the job.
Sources said Twitter employees found out about Dorsey's resignation via news reports.
What's next: The new CEO is Parag Agrawal, who long served as CTO.
Agrawal will be on the hook for plans to grow Twitter's most lucrative user base by roughly 50% and double its global annual revenue by the end of next year.” Read more at Axios
“Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder on trial for fraud, accused her former boyfriend and business partner of abuse.” Read more at New York Times
“PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, complaining the verdict was thrown out over a questionable agreement that the comic claimed gave him lifetime immunity.
They said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in June to overturn Cosby’s conviction created a dangerous precedent by giving a press release the legal weight of an immunity agreement.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele called the court's decision ‘an indefensible rule,’ predicting an onslaught of criminal appeals if it is allowed to stand.
‘This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania. The US Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong,’ Steele wrote in the petition, which seeks review under the due process clause of the US Constitution.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Actor Jussie Smollett made himself the victim of a staged hate crime in 2019 to draw the attention of his colleagues on the television show ‘Empire’ after he decided they had failed to take an earlier written threat seriously, a prosecutor said in a Chicago court Monday.
Dan K. Webb, the special prosecutor, laid out what he saw as Smollett’s motive in opening arguments of the actor’s trial on criminal charges that he lied to police when he reported he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.
In January 2019, Webb said, Smollett received an anonymous ‘actual hate letter,’ which included a homophobic slur and a drawing of a stick figure hanging from a tree. The letter included the acronym ‘MAGA’ made of cutout newspaper and magazine letters, he said, a reference to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. Law enforcement has not been able to determine who sent the letter, Webb said.
‘Therefore, he devised this fake hate crime to take place so that the ‘Empire’ studio would take this more seriously,’ he said of Smollett, ‘because this fake hate crime would get media attention.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“Opening arguments begin in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. The British socialite is accused of conspiring with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. Her trial began Monday in federal court in Manhattan. Set to last about six weeks, it is expected to provide a window into what prosecutors have described as the late Epstein’s sex trafficking of dozens of minors in multiple states.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Israel has shared intelligence with the U.S. and several European allies suggesting Iran is taking technical steps to prepare to enrich uranium to 90% purity — the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon, Axios Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid reports.” Read more at Axios
“Seven children remain hospitalized after last weekend's parade tragedy in suburban Milwaukee. Four of the kids are in serious condition. Six people have died. Get the latest.” Read more at Axios
“Sunday was TSA's busiest day since the beginning of the pandemic, with 2.5 million screened.” Read more at Axios
“A ‘Simpsons’ episode that mocks Chinese censorship has vanished from Disney+ in Hong Kong.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW YORK (AP) — CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had a bigger role than previously known in helping defend his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, from sexual harassment allegations that forced him out of office, newly released transcripts and text messages show.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — Some gulfs are too wide to bridge, but it appeared at first as if Representative Lauren Boebert, the far-right Republican from Colorado, was trying to do so on Monday when she reached out to Representative Ilhan Omar, the progressive Democrat from Minnesota.
Ms. Boebert, a freshman who has built her brief political career on incendiary comments and right-wing provocations, angered Democrats over the Thanksgiving break when a video surfaced of her suggesting that Ms. Omar, a Muslim who wears a hijab, could be a suicide bomber, and bragging to constituents about confronting Ms. Omar on an elevator with an Islamophobic epithet.
On Monday, Ms. Boebert reached out to Ms. Omar, ostensibly to apologize. It did not go well.
Ms. Omar has said the elevator incident never happened, but the two lawmakers’ accounts of Monday’s phone call do not differ much, down to Ms. Omar abruptly hanging up on Ms. Boebert. Both came away doubly aggrieved — Ms. Omar calling the apology woefully inadequate and Ms. Boebert proclaiming herself a victim of a hypersensitive political culture.” Read more at New York Times
“National news outlets are beginning to take a closer look at Republican efforts at the state level to influence, and potentially sabotage, election administration.
The Washington Post and NBC News both published stories in recent days focusing on the past several months of developments at the state level, particularly in MICHIGAN. Trump himself, and his supporters at the local level, are working to install partisan election referees there whose help may be invaluable in 2022 and 2024.
The Post’s lengthy Monday morning story features an interview with Robert Boyd, who TPM interviewed last month. Boyd was picked by local Republican Party officials to sit on the Wayne County, Michigan (home of Detroit) Board of Canvassers, replacing the former Republican officeholder, who voted under immense pressure to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
But the Post story includes some juicy new tidbits: COLORADO right-wingers are sharing election job listings on conservatives social media sites, in hopes of installing allies in the offices….The national Republican Party is turning its Election Day poll-watching operation into a permanent, year-round program, permanently staffed with attorneys and organizers.” Read more at TPM
“GENEVA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights expert said on Monday that electoral laws in some parts of the United States including Texas may undermine democracy by depriving millions of citizens who belong to minority groups of the equal right to vote.
Fernand de Varennes, the U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues, speaking on the final day of a two-week visit to the United States, decried a Texas law that he said resulted in ‘gerrymandering’ and dilution of voting rights of minorities in favour of white Americans.
‘There is in fact what could be described as an undermining of democracy with a phenomenal number of legislative measures in different parts of the country...which certainly have the effect of making the exercise of the right to vote more difficult for certain minorities,’ he told a news briefing.
‘It is becoming unfortunately apparent that it is almost a tyranny of the majority where the minority right to vote is being denied in many areas,’ he added.
De Varennes called for a ‘New Deal’ to overhaul legislation. There was no immediate U.S. reaction to his preliminary observations which de Varennes said he had shared with U.S. State Department officials earlier in the day.
Democrats have made election reform a priority in light of Republican state-balloting restrictions passed in response to former President Donald Trump's false claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election.” Read more at Reuters
“SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Barbados stopped pledging allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday as it shed another vestige of its colonial past and became a republic for the first time in history.
Several leaders and dignitaries, including Prince Charles, attended the ceremony that began late Monday in a popular square where the statue of a well-known British lord was removed last year amid a worldwide push to erase symbols of oppression.
Fireworks peppered the sky at midnight as Barbados officially became a republic, with screens set up across the island so people could watch the event that featured an orchestra with more than 100 steel pan players and numerous artists. It was also broadcast online, prompting a flurry of excited messages from Bajans living in the U.S., Canada and beyond.” Read more at AP News
“NATO ministers meet. NATO foreign ministers gather in the Latvian capital Riga today for two days of meetings, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in attendance. The ministers are expected to discuss preparations for a NATO leaders summit in Madrid in June as well as tensions along Ukraine’s Russian border and the migrant crisis along Belarus’s EU borders.
The group’s meeting comes as Russia and Belarus announced joint military exercises on Monday. The drills are expected take place in the ‘medium term’ Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said, as he expressed concern over the “militarization of our neighboring countries.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“India’s farmer protests. India’s upper and lower houses passed a bill on Monday to repeal three controversial agricultural reform bills that had sparked mass protests among India’s farmers over the past year. The farmers’ demands do not end with repeal, however, as farmer groups now push for an expansion of state subsidies, currently on rice and wheat, to cover all crops.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Dozens of pub patrons, staff, and an Oasis tribute band have finally gone home after enduring three nights stuck in the Tan Hill Inn in northern England after a snowstorm blocked roads. A snowplow eventually cleared a path for the trapped group to exit, but not before many were forced to sleep on the floor of the inn, kept warm by mattresses and blankets provided by staff. Nicola Townsend, the inn’s general manager said the end of the ordeal was bittersweet ‘because we’ve had such a good time meeting new friends, getting to know new people.’ The Tan Hill temporary residents faired better than others across the region, as Storm Arwen cut power to tens of thousands of homes.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“French far-right media pundit Eric Zemmour is sliding in opinion polls amid controversies that may be hurting his chances of becoming president even before he declares his candidacy as soon as today. As Caroline Alexander reports, he returned the gesture and shouted ‘very deeply’ when a woman gave the finger to the firebrand politician in Marseilles. That came after a French magazine claimed Zemmour, 63, had gotten a much younger aide pregnant (his lawyer called the article an invasion of Zemmour’s private life).” Read more at Bloomberg
“PARIS — Perhaps France was always going to have a hard time with nonbinary pronouns. Its language is intensely gender-specific and fiercely protected by august authorities. Still, the furor provoked by a prominent dictionary’s inclusion of the pronoun ‘iel’ has been remarkably virulent.
Le Petit Robert, rivaled only by the Larousse in linguistic authority, chose to add ‘iel’ — a gender-neutral merging of the masculine ‘il’ (he) and the feminine ‘elle’ (she) — to its latest online edition. Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, was not amused.
‘You must not manipulate the French language, whatever the cause,’ he said, expressing support for the view that ‘iel’ was an expression of ‘wokisme.’
Mr. Blanquer is seemingly convinced of a sweeping American ‘woke’ assault on France aimed at spreading racial and gender discord over French universalism. Last month he told the daily Le Monde that a backlash against what he called woke ideology was the main factor in the 2016 victory of Donald J. Trump.” Read more at New York Times
“After the Mets’ billionaire owner, Steven A. Cohen, flexed some of his financial might over the weekend with three new additions, he made his splashiest move yet.
On Monday, the Mets and Max Scherzer, a three-time winner of the Cy Young Award, agreed to a record-setting deal that would pair him with a two-time winner of the Cy Young, Jacob deGrom, and that may usher in a new era for a franchise that has been disappointing in recent seasons.
Scherzer’s pact is worth $130 million over three years, according to two people familiar with the negotiations who were granted anonymity because the agreement was pending a physical examination. The average annual salary of $43.3 million will shatter the previous record set by Gerrit Cole, who signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees before the 2020 season.” Read more at New York Times
“Lee Elder, who became the first African American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, died on Sunday in Escondido, Calif. He was 87.
The PGA Tour announced the death but provided no other details.
When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in April 1975, he was 40 years old. Years earlier, in his prime, he played in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues. The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only ‘members of the Caucasian race,’ as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.
Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meager purses.
Elder first played regularly on the PGA Tour in 1968, and that August he took Jack Nicklaus to a playoff at the American Golf Classic in Akron, Ohio, losing in sudden death.” Read more at New York Times
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