“By Jan. 4, many employers will have to ensure that their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for Covid-19. The set of new vaccine requirements by the Biden administration applies to employers with 100 or more workers, covering roughly more than 80 million employees.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A wave of Republican officials are expected to sue the Biden administration Friday over a new federal rule that will require large companies to vaccinate their workforce against COVID-19 or implement rigorous testing regimes.” Read more at USA Today
“A new drug being developed by Pfizer offers the possibility of nearly putting an end to deaths from COVID-19.
When given within five days of the onset of symptoms, the antiviral therapy called Paxlovid, prevented almost 90% of deaths from COVID-19 compared to a placebo, a Pfizer study found.
By the end of the year, the company plans to complete two other studies of the pill, which is given twice a day for five days. Pfizer plans to submit the study data as part of its ongoing rolling submission to the Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible.
It's not yet clear how much the treatment would cost or how many doses could be rapidly made available, assuming it receives clearance from regulatory agencies.” Read more at USA Today
“Britain became the first country to approve Merck’s Covid treatment pill, which reduces patients’ risk of death.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of intelligence officers could soon face dismissal for failing to comply with the U.S. government’s vaccine mandate, leading some Republican lawmakers to raise concerns about removing employees from agencies critical to national security.
Several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October, said U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Some agencies in the 18-member intelligence community had as much as 40% of their workforce unvaccinated, Stewart said, citing information the administration has provided to the committee but not released publicly. He declined to identify the agencies because full information on vaccination rates was classified.
While many people will likely still get vaccinated before the administration’s Nov. 22 deadline for civilian workers, resistance to the mandate could leave major agencies responsible for national security without some personnel. Intelligence officers are particularly hard to replace due to the highly specialized work they do and the difficulties of completing security clearance checks.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — A trio of House Democrats on Thursday made a last-minute push to broaden provisions to help undocumented families in the party’s massive social spending and climate change legislation, worried the bill might be the last opportunity to deliver on President Biden’s campaign promises on immigration reform given a deepening partisan divide on the issue.
Currently, the bill would provide temporary protections and work permits to roughly 7 million people living in the United States without authorized status and who entered the country before Jan. 1, 2011. That includes 1.6 million people who arrived as children, a group known as ‘dreamers,’ and 3.6 million day care workers, janitors, and farmworkers doing essential jobs during the pandemic.
The changes were welcomed by some immigrant rights advocates and lawyers who have been pressuring President Biden to stay true to his pledge to significantly expand opportunities for immigrants and refugees in the United States. But they are still less than what the White House has previously proposed, including its initial plan for permanent residency and citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented people.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot is trying to move quickly as members face growing concern that their work would be shut down if the 2022 midterm elections result in a Republican-led House. The panel was in court yesterday to fight former President Trump’s efforts to withhold documents about what happened in the White House on the day of the insurrection. Today, the committee is scheduled to hear from Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who pushed baseless election conspiracy theories and consulted with Trump before the insurrection. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee, says about 20 more subpoenas are expected to go out soon.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about Donald J. Trump’s attempt to block from release a wide range of documents related to the Capitol riot, signaling that she might be open to allowing a congressional committee scrutinizing the violence to pore over hundreds of files that the former president wants to keep secret.
At a hearing by video conference, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia repeatedly asked pointed questions about the legal basis for Mr. Trump’s claim that at least 770 pages of documents related to the mob attack must be shielded by executive privilege.
‘The Jan. 6 riot happened in the Capitol,’ Judge Chutkan told Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Justin Clark. ‘That is literally Congress’s house.’
Still, the judge also suggested that the House select committee investigating the attack might have overreached, referring to its demand for documents — which potentially amounts to millions of pages — as ‘very broad’ and, at one point, ‘alarmingly broad.’
The hearing was the first legal skirmish in what is likely to be a prolonged battle in the courts between the panel and Mr. Trump over executive secrecy, congressional prerogatives and how to balance the two in an inquiry into what role a former president played in the events that led to a violent attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.
The panel is looking into the origins of the assault, in which a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to disrupt Congress’s counting of electoral votes to formalize President Biden’s victory.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — An analyst who was a key contributor to Democratic-funded opposition research into possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying to the F.B.I. about his sources.
The analyst, Igor Danchenko, was a primary researcher for claims that went into the so-called Steele dossier, a compendium of rumors and unproven assertions suggesting that Mr. Trump and his 2016 campaign were compromised by and conspiring with Russian intelligence officials to help him defeat Hillary Clinton.
In a 39-page indictment obtained by the special counsel, John H. Durham, a grand jury accused Mr. Danchenko of five counts of making false statements to the F.B.I. about his sources for certain claims in the dossier.
The indictment showed that two and a half years after then-Attorney General William P. Barr appointed him to scour the Trump-Russia investigation for any wrongdoing, and a year after Mr. Trump lost re-election, Mr. Durham continues to press ahead.” Read more at New York Times
“Global warming could be kept to 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels if all the pledges and promises made at the COP26 summit in Glasgow are kept, the International Energy Agency reports. Scientists have said warming needs to be kept to 1.5 degrees or below to avoid the most disastrous climate consequences, but 1.8 degrees is still big news given that the Earth is currently careening toward a 2.7-degree rise. The UK government announced that 23 more countries made commitments to phase out coal power. But some of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters -- namely China, India and the US -- did not sign on. All in all, the international vows fall short of what experts say is needed to reach net-zero coal emissions by 2050.” Read more at CNN
“Europe could face 500,000 more Covid-19 deaths this winter, the World Health Organization warns. The agency raised the alarm over rising cases and slowing vaccination rates, with a WHO regional director saying the pace of transmission across the region is of ‘grave concern.’ Much of Europe is battling spikes in infections, with Germany reporting its highest number of daily new cases yesterday since the pandemic began. Meanwhile in the US, vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 are underway, and federal workers can take paid time off to get their kids inoculated. The Biden administration also announced that vaccination and testing mandates will take effect January 4 for private businesses with 100 or more employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors. And two studies released yesterday back up a major benefit of the Covid-19 vaccines, concluding that even if vaccinated people get a breakthrough infection, they don't get as sick.” Read more at CNN
“The Federal Aviation Administration says it has referred 37 air passengers for criminal prosecution since August. Passenger violence gained new attention last week after a California man assaulted a flight attendant,sending her to the hospital for treatment.” Read more at USA Today
“The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit over Texas’s new voting restrictions, alleging they disenfranchise eligible voters — including older Americans and people with disabilities — and that they violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lawsuit was filed against the state of Texas and the Texas secretary of state over Senate Bill 1, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed into law in September. The bill imposed new criminal penalties for violating voting laws, banned 24-hour and drive-through voting and allowed more access for partisan poll watchers.
‘Our democracy depends on the right of eligible voters to cast a ballot and to have that ballot counted,’ Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday. ‘The Justice Department will continue to use all the authorities at its disposal to protect this fundamental pillar of our society.’
In September, Abbott argued that the legislation would ‘solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.’
But opponents swiftly took to federal court, filing two separate complaints seeking injunctions to stop the bill from going into effect.
The Justice Department’s complaint alleges that provisions of Senate Bill 1 will harm eligible Texas residents seeking to exercise their right to vote, including those with limited English proficiency, voters with disabilities, older voters, members of the military deployed away from home and American citizens residing abroad.
The complaint also argued that, even before Senate Bill 1, Texas had already imposed some of the strictest limitations in the country on granting voting assistance to certain citizens and on mail-in voting, even during the coronavirus pandemic.” Read more at Washington Post
“The federal government has canceled a deal worth $628 million with Emergent BioSolutions, the Maryland-based vaccine manufacturer that was a vanguard of the Donald Trump administration’s program to rapidly produce vaccines to counter the coronavirus pandemic.
The company disclosed the development on Thursday in a conference call discussing its latest financial results. The cancellation comes after Emergent’s manufacturing facilities in Baltimore were found to have produced millions of contaminated vaccine doses this spring, prompting a months-long shutdown.
Emergent will forgo about $180 million due to the contract’s termination, the company said. As part of its coronavirus efforts, the federal government had invested in building additional capacity at two of the firm’s sites.
After winning the lucrative contract from the Trump administration, whose initiative to accelerate vaccine development and distribution was known as Operation Warp Speed, Emergent ran into production problems.” Read more at Washington Post
“After a two-week selection process, jurors in the murder trial of the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia will be sworn in on Friday. The final panel of 12 jurors and four alternates includes just one person of color, a Black man. Prosecutors had asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to reinstate eight Black potential jurors, arguing that defense lawyers struck them from the final jury because of their race. While Walmsley agreed that there ‘appears to be intentional discrimination,’ he declined to make changes, saying he was limited in his ability to take action because defense attorneys were able to give nonracial reasons for their decisions to exclude the potential Black jurors.” Read more at USA Today
“The funeral for former Secretary of State Colin Powell will be held at noon ET Friday at Washington National Cathedral. Powell died Oct. 18 of complications from COVID-19. Born in New York City to Jamaican immigrants, he served four U.S. presidents and rose to become the first African American and the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer. He became the first Black secretary of state in 2001 when he joined the administration of President George W. Bush.” Read more at USA Today
“Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin's election victory this week wasn't the only big GOP gain in the state. Republicans will win at least 50 seats in the House of Delegates, guaranteeing that Democrats will no longer hold full control there. Dems could still tie the number of seats, resulting in a power-sharing agreement. Virginia Republicans also secured the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general posts. Democrats still control Virginia's state Senate, where members don't face election until 2023, but they could face difficulty in blocking any GOP-led overhauls. The formerly Democratic-controlled state's election fallout this week is seen as a bellwether of sorts for the 2022 midterms.” Read more at CNN
“It’s a moment African American officials say has been a long time coming, made possible by an earlier generation of trailblazers who broke barriers in the face of immense bias and carried the burden of being the first.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, one of a record seven Black people now representing New York in Congress, said the new mayor and prosecutor will be ‘transformational figures.’
‘The emergence of individuals like Eric Adams and Alvin Bragg follow in a long tradition of leaders who emerge from the fiery furnace of the Black experience in New York City, particularly in some of our toughest neighborhoods, to become public servants committed to doing a great deal of good for everyone,’ said Jeffries.
Nearly 28 years after David Dinkins ended his single term as New York’s first Black mayor, the halls of power in the city and state are packed with Black leaders from the city or its suburbs, including three of the state’s most powerful politicians: Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Letitia James, the state’s first Black attorney general who is now running for governor.
A majority of the city’s borough presidents are now Black, as well as several top prosecutors, including both of its appointed U.S. attorneys, and its elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who is also considering a gubernatorial run.
The change has happened even as the number of Black people living in New York City has declined, falling by 4.5% since 2010 even as the city’s overall population grew.
According to the 2020 census, 20% of New Yorkers are Black, 31% are non-Hispanic white, 28% are Hispanic and around 16% Asian.” Read more at AP News
“The International Criminal Court will formally investigate allegations of crimes against humanity in Venezuela. Embattled President Nicolas Maduro’s government has been on the ICC’s radar since 2018. That's when several South American nations and Canada asked the court to investigate the country for alleged crimes, including extrajudicial murder and torture, dating to 2014. Venezuelans have endured years of political and social unrest, and the United Nations recently accused Venezuelan security forces of using excessive force and arbitrarily detaining thousands of people during protests against Maduro's government. Maduro has agreed in writing to cooperate with the probe. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who has been backed by dozens of countries as Venezuela's legitimate president, welcomed the decision.” Read more at CNN
“SEOUL—North Korea has the capacity to make more base ingredients for nuclear bombs than previously believed, according to new research, suggesting the Kim Jong Un regime possesses the potential to accelerate the earliest stages of production.
The nation’s output of uranium—a fissile material for nuclear weapons when enriched—is just a fraction of what could be produced, according to new research from Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
The assertion is based on satellite-imagery analysis of the equipment and facility size of the Kim regime’s only confirmed operational uranium mining complex in Pyongsan county, about 30 miles north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. That milling capacity assessment was contrasted with North Korea’s estimated production, based on the levels of waste deposited near the mill.
Furthermore, researchers tracked deforestation levels to study mining activity from 2017 to 2020, using an algorithm to analyze satellite imagery and detect land-use changes.
The gap between potential and actual production may indicate that the Kim regime is satisfied with its current proliferation levels, doesn’t have enough ore to mine or that potential bottlenecks exist at later stages of weapons-grade fissile development, said Sulgiye Park, the report’s lead author who is a nuclear-security research fellow at Stanford.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“JOHANNESBURG — The African National Congress, South Africa’s once-vaunted liberation movement, suffered its worst election showing since coming to power in 1994, according to the results of municipal elections released Thursday.
Facing widespread anger over corruption and collapsing services, the party won less than 50 percent of the vote nationally on Monday, the first time in its history that it has failed to cross that threshold.
Voters went to the polls on Monday to choose councilors and mayors to govern towns and cities, but they used the opportunity to vent their grievances over national issues, including record unemployment and anger over the handling of Covid. The result was a resounding rebuke for the A.N.C., particularly in urban areas. Significantly low voter turnout was a further indictment of the A.N.C. and of the main opposition parties, with voters choosing smaller, identity-driven parties.” Read more at New York Times
“MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian police charged a man on Thursday over the abduction of a 4-year-old girl who was found after an 18-day search that had transfixed Australia since her disappearance from her family’s tent in the dead of night.
The Western Australia police said in a statement that the 36-year-old man, whom local media identified as Terence Darrell Kelly, had been charged with “various offenses relating to the abduction of 4-year-old Cleo Smith.”
One of the charges is ‘forcibly taking a child under 16,’ said the statement, which did not detail what or how many other charges were laid.” Read more at New York Times
Tanzania denied the existence of the pandemic for months, even as thousands likely died.
“A burial site in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is evidence of one of the world’s great coronavirus coverups. Gravediggers at the Kondo graveyard said those buried there since last year have one thing in common: All died as a result of the coronavirus, yet none were recorded as suffering from Covid-19. One caretaker told WSJ, ‘This is one of the government’s coronavirus cemeteries, but we’re not allowed to call it that.’ Last year, President John Magufuli declared the virus a ‘satanic myth’ propagated by imperialist powers. While his neighbors sealed borders and locked down, his country of 58 million stayed open. His government barred doctors from registering coronavirus deaths and labeled mask-wearing unpatriotic. By this spring, the president was dead, along with six other senior leaders. The official cause of Magufuli’s death was heart failure, and while details remain secret, Covid-19 was the widely suspected culprit. Tanzania’s refusal to collect virus data is the most extreme example of the pandemic’s hidden toll in Africa, where few countries offer accurate counts of the sick and dead.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers are seeking justice in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell.
“A medical examiner determined the disgraced financier died by suicide more than two years ago. Now, accusers say they see an opportunity for closure when Ghislaine Maxwell—Epstein’s longtime friend, confidante and employee who is accused of sex trafficking—goes on trial this week. Prosecutors have accused her of grooming girls for Epstein, including by befriending them and taking them shopping or to the movies. During a hearing Monday, Maxwell said she had committed no crime. She is charged with crimes including enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The indictment cites four anonymous women prosecutors say Maxwell groomed as teenagers for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Biden approves Saudi weapons deal. The Biden administration approved a $650 million weapons sale to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the first major weapons sale to Riyadh during the Biden presidency, which began with a freeze on sales to both the kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. In a statement the U.S. Department of Defense said the sale would help “improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political and economic progress in the Middle East.” The U.S. State Department said the sale of air-to-air missiles was consistent with Biden’s pledge to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen as the missiles are ‘not used to engage ground targets.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
A new Galápagos conservation effort targets Chinese fishing fleets.
“The governments of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica unveiled a plan to unite the famed Galápagos Islands by a marine corridor with Colombia’s Malpelo Island and the Cocos and Coiba islands off Central America. The goal is to mark off a stretch of ocean twice the size of Arizona as off-limits to industrial fishing. The Latin American governments didn’t single out China, but they have previously complained about Chinese fishing ships that ply the region’s waters for giant squid, threatening the key food source for creatures including humpback whales, rays, giant turtles and hammerhead sharks. Environmentalists largely applaud the plan but say enforcement will be a challenge.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Ortega’s election. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is headed for certain victory as the country holds an election on Sunday that has been widely condemned by the international community. Ortega’s repeated jailing of opposition candidates gives him a clear run toward a fourth term in an election U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called a ‘sham’ and ‘devoid of credibility.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“South Korea’s presidential primary. Yoon Seok-youl won a primary election for South Korea’s conservative opposition People Power Party on Friday setting up a battle with the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung in March’s presidential election. Recent opinion polls put Lee ahead of Yoon by 10 percentage points.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Portugal’s snap election. Portugal will hold a snap election on Jan. 30, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Thursday following the government’s recent failure to pass a budget for the following year. The election is likely to provide an opening for Chega, the country’s right-wing populist party, to improve on its current single seat in parliament. In 2021’s presidential election, Chega’s André Ventura came third, but still won more than 10 percent of the overall vote.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Small steps | Sudan’s army chief ordered the release of four cabinet ministers detained during last week’s coup, partly meeting a condition set by civilian politicians for engaging in dialogue to end a crisis that’s put billions of dollars in aid and debt relief at risk. Mediators from the United Nations and Western and African countries are trying to broker the return of a civilian-led government.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Vietnam’s likely next Communist Party leader may have had his career stymied by an encounter with Salt Bae.
Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security To Lam is facing public derision in his home country after he was captured eating a steak dinner worth three times his monthly income on a visit to London following COP26 in Glasgow. To was dining at the restaurant of Nusret Gokce, known as Salt Bae for his extravagant salt distribution technique and good looks, and was filmed being fed a gold-coated Golden Giant Tomahawk steak by the chef, a meal which costs roughly $2,000.
Gokce posted the video of the stunt on his own 11-million-follower TikTok account, allowing Vietnamese activists to ridicule To for his life of luxury. The video was removed 30 minutes later.” Read more at Foreign Policy
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