An aerial view of the city of Mayfield in Kentucky after a tornado struck. More than 20 tornadoes have caused destruction across southern and central states in the US. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA
“Dozens remain unaccounted for after tornado left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky
Dozens remained unaccounted for on Sunday as rescuers worked overnight searching for survivors after what could be the longest tornado in US history left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky, part of a vast storm front that it is feared may have killed at least 100 people.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said the path of devastation was about 227 miles (365km) long, which, if confirmed, would surpass the 218-mile Tri-State tornado in 1925, which killed at least 695 people and destroyed 15,000 homes across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Temperatures were below freezing in the night in Mayfield, Kentucky, a small city largely leveled by winds estimated at up to 200mph. Survivors rushed to gather their families and find shelter, while a damaged water tower meant no running water for the devastated community as of early Sunday.
Friday night’s storm was all the more unusual because it came in December, when colder weather normally limits tornadoes, said Victor Gensini, an extreme weather researcher at Northern Illinois University.
On Saturday, at least five central and southern US states reported deaths after what president Joe Biden said was ‘likely to be one of the largest tornado outbreaks in our history’, with an estimated 22 tornadoes touching down.
Hardest hit was Kentucky, where Beshear said a death toll of more than 70 ‘may, in fact exceed 100 before the day is done’.
‘The level of devastation is unlike anything that I have ever seen,’ he said.
Many of the deaths came in a candle factory in Mayfield, where about 110 employees were working the night shift when a tornado roared through, destroying the building. Jeremy Creason, emergency services chief for the city of 10,000, described how rescuers had to, at times, ‘crawl over casualties to get to live victims’.” Read more at The Guardian
“The U.S. is on track to exceed 800,000 Covid deaths this week, a year after the vaccine rollout began.
More than 120,000 coronavirus cases are emerging each day, with outbreaks worsening in the Great Lakes region and in the Northeast.
Omicron looms, but how large remains to be seen. In Britain, the first real-world study of how vaccines hold up against the new variant showed a significant drop in protection, but it also indicated that boosters provided considerable defense. Still, British scientists warned that the variant could overtake Delta by mid-December.
On Tuesday, the U.S. will mark one year since it began its vaccination campaign. In that time, 200 million people have been fully vaccinated, but the pace of vaccination varies across the country — and the world. Zambia’s challenges highlight new obstacles.” Read more at New York Times
“A retired U.S. Army colonel who circulated a proposal to challenge the 2020 election, including by declaring a national security emergency and seizing paper ballots, said that he visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoke with President Donald Trump’s chief of staff ‘maybe eight to 10 times’ and briefed several members of Congress on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot.
Phil Waldron, the retired colonel, was working with Trump’s outside lawyers and was part of a team that briefed the lawmakers on a PowerPoint presentation detailing ‘Options for 6 JAN,’ Waldron told The Washington Post. He said his contribution to the presentation focused on his claims of foreign interference in the vote, as did his discussions with the White House.
A version of the presentation made its way to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 5. That information surfaced publicly this week after the congressional committee investigating the insurrection released a letter that said Meadows had turned the document over to the committee.
‘The presentation was that there was significant foreign interference in the election, here’s the proof,’ Waldron said. ‘These are constitutional, legal, feasible, acceptable and suitable courses of action.’
The PowerPoint circulated by Waldron included proposals for Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6 to reject electors from ‘states where fraud occurred’ or replace them with Republican electors. It included a third proposal in which the certification of Joe Biden’s victory was to be delayed, and U.S. marshals and National Guard troops were to help ‘secure’ and count paper ballots in key states.
Multiple scholars have said there was no legal basis for Pence to intervene in the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6. Numerous ballot recounts and legal proceedings have confirmed that there was no evidence of any significant fraud in the 2020 election.” Read more at Washington Post
“A senior Trump administration official told the House panel probing the government’s coronavirus response that he will not comply with their subpoena, escalating a fight with Democrats investigating the handling of the pandemic.
Peter Navarro, who served as President Donald Trump’s trade adviser and closely consulted on the White House’s virus strategy, cited a ‘direct order’ from the former president to claim executive privilege, according to a letter released on Saturday by the panel.
‘[T]his matter is out of my hands and something that the Sub-Committee should discuss with President Trump’s counsel,’ Navarro wrote to the committee on Dec. 7, rejecting their requests to turn over documents and share other information about the White House coronavirus response by their Dec. 8 deadline.” Read more at Washington Post
Bryce Young celebrates after defeating rival Auburn last month.Butch Dill/Associated Press
“Bryce Young became the second consecutive Alabama player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Young, a sophomore quarterback and the overall favorite, had a sensational game against Georgia last Saturday, when he passed for more than 420 yards. He has thrown 43 touchdowns, has been intercepted just four times and has led his team to the No. 1 ranking in the country.
More than 900 electronic ballots were distributed to Heisman voters. Their instructions were straightforward: Simply select the most outstanding player. And it’s been that way for decades.” Read more at New York Times
“Anne Rice, the Gothic novelist best known for her best-selling book ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ died on Saturday. She was 80.
Her son, Christopher Rice, wrote on social media that Ms. Rice died of ‘complications resulting from a stroke.’
‘She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died,’ Mr. Rice wrote on his mother’s Facebook page
Born in New Orleans on Oct. 4, 1941, Ms. Rice was most widely known for the novel series ‘The Vampire Chronicles,’ the first of which was ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ published in 1976. It was adapted into a movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas.” Read more at New York Times
“Former Senator David Perdue of Georgia, a Republican who is running for governor with the backing of former President Donald J. Trump, filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking the inspection of absentee ballots in the 2020 election, reviving long-debunked claims in the latest sign that Mr. Trump’s election grievances will be central to his candidacy.
The lawsuit draws on Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud in Georgia and across the country, which culminated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. In the months since, many Republican elected officials have pivoted from rebuking election conspiracy theories to embracing them vocally in an effort to win the affections of Mr. Trump and his supporters.
Mr. Perdue, who was endorsed by Mr. Trump soon after announcing his candidacy on Monday, is running against Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican who is a staunch conservative but has come under withering attacks from the former president and his allies over Mr. Kemp’s unwillingness to help them overturn President Biden’s victory in Georgia. Mr. Perdue told news outlets this week that he would not have certified the results if he had been governor instead of Mr. Kemp.
Republicans in states across the country have continued to cast doubt on the 2020 election’s legitimacy by trying to carry out partisan reviews of the results, which they often misleadingly label ‘audits’ to lend them a greater sense of authority. G.O.P. lawmakers in at least five states are pursuing reviews, and Republicans in states including Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida have introduced bills to begin new ones next year.” Read more at New York Times
“A self-professed member of the Proud Boys from Texas who traveled to Portland, Ore., to confront protesters there last year was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for shooting a man in the eye with a paintball gun, spraying people in the face with bear mace and aiming a loaded handgun at a crowd, prosecutors said.
The Texas man, Alan Swinney, 51, was a ‘white nationalist vigilante cowboy,’ who went to Portland to engage in political violence during protests there in the summer of 2020, prosecutors said.
In social media posts, he made threats against ‘the left’ and ‘antifa,’ prosecutors said, and he tried to recruit people to form a militia to fight in what he believed was a civil war.
Mr. Swinney, who appeared at several demonstrations in the Northwest, became a ‘known entity’ in Portland, as he instigated and committed violent acts under the banner of free speech and pro-police sentiments, prosecutors said.” Read more at Washington Post
“A secret U.S. unit battered ISIS in Syria with tens of thousands of airstrikes. It repeatedly sidestepped safeguards and killed civilians, a Times investigation found.
The military billed the 2014-19 air war against the Islamic State as the most precise and humane in military history and said that strict rules and oversight by top leaders had kept civilian deaths to a minimum.
In reality, four current and former military officials say, the majority of strikes was ordered by a relatively low-ranking unit called Talon Anvil. People who worked with the strike cell say that in the rush to destroy enemies, Talon Anvil circumvented rules imposed to protect noncombatants.” Read more at New York Times
“American officials are looking closely at President Jovenel Moïse’s efforts to disrupt the drug trade in Haiti as a motive in his assassination.
In the months leading up to the attack, the president had been working on a list of powerful politicians and businesspeople involved in the country’s drug trade, with the intention of handing over the dossier to the American government, according to four senior Haitian advisers.
During interrogations, some of the captured hit men confessed that retrieving the list was a top priority, according to three senior Haitian officials. The document was part of a broader series of clashes Moïse had with powerful political and business figures. Moïse had known several of them for years, and they felt betrayed by his turn against them, aides say.” Read more at New York Times
“A movement animated by Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies is turning its attention to 2022 and beyond.
According to one poll, more than 60 percent of Republicans now believe the 2020 election was stolen. Republican candidates coming out of the Stop the Steal movement are seeking office at the state and county levels in positions that supervise the election systems that they believe robbed Trump of a second term. A number of legislative initiatives would assert more Republican control over election systems.
The Democratic secretary of state in Michigan called it ‘a five-alarm fire.’
In other politics news: The fight unfolding in statehouses and courthouses over abortion, most recently in the Supreme Court’s split decision on Friday over Texas’s restrictive law, is one of the most polarizing issues among lawmakers. But the public’s view of it is far more complicated than left and right.” Read more at New York Times
“The murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed sent signals that the U.S. might finally reckon with systemic racism. Instead, a backlash has even some once-strong allies backtracking, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
Why it matters: A wave of proposed reforms rose up but crashed into the bulkhead of the status quo. Defund the police plans fizzled. Federal voting rights and police reform bills are stalled.
But U.S. history shows the walls of inequality seldom collapse all at once. Instead, cracks emerge and with time turn into larger openings.
Though sweeping plans to revamp law enforcement appear dead, for the first time some officers were convicted for use of excessive force, including the former officer who killed Floyd.
Black, Latino, Asian American and Native American voters cast ballots in record numbers.
Activists toppled statues of former slaveholding Confederates and murderers of Indigenous people. Cities renamed streets.
Some states, including Illinois and New Mexico, passed sweeping police reform bills that banned chokeholds and required officers to wear body cameras.
Reality check: The ongoing pandemic — and rhetoric from former President Donald Trump, who falsely alleged BLM protesters were linked to Antifa — helped dampen support for racial justice demonstrations.
The intrigue: Voters in cities like New York supported moderates like Eric Adams, a Black former police captain and now mayor-elect, allowing them to emerge as new leaders over more progressive candidates who supported BLM proposals.” Read more at Axios
“Last year's racial reckoning led to dramatic, visible changes in professional sports:
Teams ditched racist mascots. Leagues pledged millions to support new social justice efforts and made improvements in hiring practices, Axios Sports reporter Jeff Tracy writes.
Why it matters: The sports world still struggles with cosmetic vs. real progress.
MLB committed up to $150 million over the next decade to the Players Alliance, aiding diversity initiatives.
MLB also elevated the historical Negro Leagues to major league status, and just this week the first Negro Leaguers since 2006 were elected to the Hall of Fame.
Native American mascots in Washington and Cleveland were ditched, and though the Braves' tomahawk chop remains, there is a growing conversation regarding its appropriateness.
Reality check: Two months after winning Olympic gold, gymnastics breakout star Suni Lee was pepper-sprayed and pelted with slurs by passengers in a passing car while she waited for a ride in L.A.” Read more at Axios
“Republicans are betting that Democrats have gone too far in addressing systemic racism: They're leaning into culture wars over school curriculum, college admissions, voting rights, hiring practices and policing, Axios managing editor Margaret Talev reports.
These calculations are playing out in governor's races, in the battle for control of both chambers of Congress, and in local races all the way down to school boards.
Why it matters: In the past decade, Republicans saw declines in suburban and women voters, who were turned off by the far-right flank.
Democrats could unwittingly drive some of these lost voters back into Republicans' arms, if the voters see Dems' rhetoric and policy prescriptions for racial, ethnic and gender inequities as too extreme.” Read more at Axios
“Press freedom is starting to get more attention from world leaders, with new data showing 2021 was another record-breaking year for violations of those rights, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
Why it matters: Press freedoms have taken an unprecedented toll during the pandemic, especially in poorer nations and in countries teetering on the edge of democracy.
The big picture: Journalists are facing record levels of persecution globally during the pandemic, with autocrats empowered to go after the press with arbitrary ‘fake news’ laws and internet blackouts.
A record number of journalists are in jail for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
President Biden confirmed Thursday that the U.S. will invest up to $30 million in a new initiative, led by news veterans, called The International Fund for Public Interest Media, to protect the free press globally.
His commitment makes the U.S. the largest funder.
The backstory: The new fund, which launched earlier this year, is a global effort to support independent media outlets and journalists around the world. Former New York Times CEO and BBC director-general Mark Thompson and Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa co-chair the group's board.
Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for her commitment to fighting for a free press and combating misinformation online, alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov.” Read more at Axios
“Austria has ended lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people across most of the country, three weeks after reimposing strict rules to combat a rising wave of coronavirus infections.
The rules, which vary by region within the country, largely allow for the reopening of theatres, museums and other cultural and entertainment venues on Sunday. Shops will follow on Monday.
Some regions are reopening restaurants and hotels on Sunday, while others will wait until later in the month. In all cases, there will be an 11pm curfew for restaurants, and masks will still be required on public transport and inside stores and public spaces.” Read more at The Guardian
The shift accelerated in the fall of 2020, when Israel signed diplomatic agreements with four countries that had previously avoided formal relations because of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.
Mr. Bennett will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto Emirati leader, on Sunday.” Read more at New York Times