“Derek Chauvin struck a plea deal with prosecutors. The former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of second-degree murder in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd and sentenced to 22.5 years in a state trial earlier this year. Chauvin’s plea in a separate, federal civil-rights case means the government will seek a 300-month maximum sentence instead of life.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“WASHINGTON — President Biden flew to Kentucky on Wednesday to survey the damage wrought by a series of deadly tornadoes last weekend, reprising a role comforting disaster victims that has become a staple of his presidency and promising that the federal government would cover the full cost of emergency response efforts for the next month.
Mr. Biden walked the storms’ paths of destruction in a pair of communities in the southeastern corner of the state, past entire blocks of buildings leveled by the high winds. He hugged survivors and promised that his administration would partner in relief efforts until residents and business owners could fully rebuild, describing the devastation as ‘almost beyond belief.’
‘I intend to do whatever it takes,’ Mr. Biden said in brief remarks from an intersection in battered Dawson Springs, Ky., ‘as long as it takes, to support your state, your local leaders, as you recover and rebuild — because you will recover and you will rebuild.’” Read more at New York Times
“Businesses, employers and universities are taking the data into their own hands and requiring booster COVID shots, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.
Why it matters: Three shots work better than two at preventing infection, especially against the Omicron variant. But competing definitions of ‘fully vaccinated’ — based on where you live or work — will inevitably confuse people.
Booster requirements are steadily rolling out across the country, even though the federal definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ hasn't yet changed from two shots of Moderna or Pfizer and one of J&J.
The Metropolitan Opera will require adult employees and audience members to have booster shots beginning Jan. 17. (Go deeper)
Several universities — including Georgetown and NYU— announced booster requirements for students and staff beginning in January.
The NFL requires coaches and staff to get boosters by Dec. 27.
Between the lines: Americans are split on what they think the definition of fully vaccinated is, according to Harris polling provided exclusively to Axios.
49% of adults said that ‘fully vaccinated’ means two shots of Pfizer or Moderna or one shot of J&J
51% said that ‘fully vaccinated’ now includes a booster.
What you need to know: Data shows COVID vaccines' protection wanes over time, although it remains high against severe illness.” Read more at Axios
“New COVID wave disrupts globe:
‘England's chief medical officer warned people not to mix with others unless they have to in the run-up to Christmas after Britain recorded its most daily coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.’ —Reuters
Ivies urge students to head home: ‘Princeton, Cornell, Middlebury and ... others shifted to remote exams.’ Tulane is among those allowing students to finish the semester online. —The Wall Street Journal
Cancellations rattle Broadway: The new wave is upending the ‘show must go on’ ethos, ‘supplanting it with a safety-first strategy. The result: a raft of cancellations unlike any in history.’ —N.Y. Times' Michael Paulson
COVID rakes NBA, NFL, NHL, benching household names, including Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo and Cleveland Browns' Baker Mayfield. 140+ NHL players affected this season. —NBC
Apple closes stores in Miami, Annapolis and Ottawa.” —Bloomberg [Axios]
A tornado approaches Interstate 80 near Atlantic, Iowa, yesterday as a semi rolls eastward. Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/Des Moines Register via Reuters
“A monstrous line of thunderstorms raced across a huge swath of Iowa last evening, creating severe weather threats never before recorded in the state in December, Axios Des Moines reports.
The National Weather Service had only issued two tornado warnings in Iowa in December before this week, tornado researcher Harold Brooks says.
Yesterday, forecasters issued more than a dozen for the Hawkeye State.
A derecho (line of fast, intense storms) menaced Minnesota and Wisconsin, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.” Read more at Axios
“Sour end | Democrats in the U.S. are limping toward the end of the year with party divisions and Senate rules stalling Biden’s $2 trillion economic agenda. While they succeeded in pushing through a coronavirus relief package and a $550 billion infrastructure bill, Steven T. Dennis and Laura Litvan write, priorities like gun control, immigration and policing reform fell aside.
Senator Ron Wyden blocked a bill that would ban goods made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region after Senator Marco Rubio rejected his request to add an unrelated extension of the child tax credit.” Read more at Bloomberg
“WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday gave its approval to a record-setting $768 billion defense authorization bill, readying it for President Biden’s expected signature.
The bill contains several historic measures, including provisions to move prosecutions of sexual assault and related crimes involving military personnel outside their chain of command, and instructions to establish an independent commission that will scrutinize the legacy and errors of the 20-year Afghanistan war. The 16-member panel, which the bill tasks with producing a report within three years, would be selected in equal measure by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, with all current and former members of Congress and high-ranking defense officials dating back to 2001 precluded from participation.
The bill includes multiple sections ordering close study of traditional and emerging threats, from adversary nations like Russia and China all the way to the undefined corners of outer space. It orders the Pentagon to report to Congress on a ‘grand strategy’ for countering China, the testing and development of hypersonic missiles, threats posed by ‘unidentified aerial phenomena,’ and the pattern of mysterious debilitating incidents afflicting US diplomats and spies abroad — what’s become known as Havana syndrome.
The defense authorization bill received a 89 to 10 vote in the Senate, after earning the support of more than 80 percent of the House last week.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The Biden administration released a batch of secret government files Wednesday related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the latest milestone in a decades-long push by advocates to have all of the documents about the former president’s untimely death declassified.
The newly released batch of files, posted by the National Archives and Records Administration, include 1,491 documents, 958 of which are from the CIA. That is less than 10 percent of the 15,834 documents that had remained partially or mostly redacted before Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Jefferson Morley, editor of JFKFacts.org and a former Washington Post staff writer, said he had not yet found anything earth-shattering but was still sifting through the hundreds of documents. A key development in the release, he noted, was that the National Archives also issued a plan to digitize the entire collection of JFK assassination records.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Hackers linked with the governments of China, Iran, North Korea and Turkey are exploiting a critical flaw in a software used by big tech firms around the world, Microsoft has warned. So far, foreign hacking groups appear to have experimented with the vulnerability, which is located in Java-based software known as ‘Log4j’ that organizations around the world use to log information in their applications. A senior US cybersecurity official said there's no evidence that federal networks had been breached using the vulnerability. However, the Log4j flaw could end up affecting most of the internet. Apple's cloud computing service, security firm Cloudflare, and Minecraft, one of the world's most popular video games, all run Log4j, according to researchers.” Read more at CNN
“A Miami-Dade grand jury overseeing the Surfside condo collapse that killed 98 people in June has released a report detailing ways to avoid a similar tragedy. The report calls for more money, staff and inspectors to identify dangerous buildings, and recommends raising qualification standards for inspectors. The panel also said that the certification process for a residential property should begin much earlier than 40 years after it is built. The engineering firm that was hired for the Surfside condo’s 40-year recertification in 2018 had found ‘deep’ concrete deterioration, but couldn’t perform repairs due to structural stability concerns. While it wasn’t their task to uncover what caused the deadly collapse, the grand jury also noted that, nearly six months later, investigators still don’t know exactly how it happened.” Read more at CNN
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it's moving ‘as quickly as possible’ to update health advisories after new documents indicate that a chemical called PFOA, found in drinking water, is a ‘likely carcinogen’ with essentially no safe level of exposure. Before PFOA and PFOS — a similar chemical — were phased out of U.S. manufacturing in 2015, Americans were primarily exposed via household products such as pots and pans, carpets and food packaging. The new EPA documents affirm findings that the chemicals are measurably driving up kidney cancer rates and weakening immune systems. The agency could require water utilities to filter out detectable amounts of PFOA, or it could decide the costs of doing so outweigh benefits. The EPA will hold its first public hearing on the process Thursday.” Read more at USA Today
“Prosecutors are expected to rest their case Thursday morning in the manslaughter trial of former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter, who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, while yelling ‘Taser’ during a traffic stop earlier this year. Potter is also expected to take the stand during the defense's presentation of evidence Thursday. On Wednesday, Wright's father, Aubrey, testified as a ‘spark of life’ witness for the state. ‘We had a close relationship. He was me and my wife's first child,’ Aubrey Wright said, his voice cracking. He added: ‘I miss him a lot. Every day.’ Potter is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s death.” Read more at USA Today
“Airline executives are facing lawmakers’ questions about flight disruptions. Senators are pushing for answers about what factors have led some carriers to struggle at times to handle a travel rebound after the industry received billions of dollars in federal aid to avoid such issues.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Senate Democrats are scrambling to find a way to pass in the coming weeks voting rights legislation they have portrayed as necessary to protect democracy amid increasing pressure to counter Republican changes to election laws in key states and as progress on the domestic policy bill they have made their top legislative priority for months has stalled.
Several lawmakers said Wednesday they are optimistic the new push could succeed where previous efforts have failed because of growing support for changing the Senate’s filibuster rule that has allowed Republicans to block previous attempts to pass voting rights legislation.
But it remained far from certain that the rules changes under consideration would ultimately go beyond nibbling around the edges of the filibuster’s 60-vote supermajority requirement for most legislation, leaving the party once again facing the seemingly intractable predicament of how to deliver on a campaign promise they say is needed to deal with an existential crisis for the country.” Read more at Washington Post
“Omicron wave hits the U.K. British health officials have told residents to prepare for a ‘staggering’ increase in COVID-19 cases in the coming days as the omicron variant spreads throughout the country. On Wednesday 78,610 new coronavirus cases were reported—a record daily number since the pandemic began. The latest wave is also driving a political rift in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, with almost 100 members of his parliamentary party refusing to back his proposal for vaccine checks at nightclubs and other large gathering areas. The measures passed thanks to support from the opposition Labour Party.
Johnson faces a crucial by-election in North Shropshire today; political analysts have warned that a loss of the historically safe Tory seat could mean that the prime minister’s days are numbered.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The EU leaders summit. European Union heads of state and government meet today for a two-day summit in Brussels. The leaders will have plenty to discuss, with energy prices, the rise of the omicron variant and recent tensions with Russia over Ukraine all expected to feature on the agenda. The meeting is the first for Olaf Scholz since he assumed the post of German chancellor earlier this month.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has agreed to replace monitoring cameras at a key nuclear facility, ending months of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Cameras at the facility were damaged during a sabotage attack in June. Although IAEA officials will be permitted to replace the cameras, Iran said the recorded footage will not be made available until U.S. sanctions are lifted.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Migrant boat capsizes in Malaysia. At least eleven people have died after a small boat carrying migrants from Indonesia capsized near the Malaysian coast. Fourteen people survived and 25 remain missing. The vessel was found 60 feet from the shore in Johor state, according to Malaysia’s national news agency.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful typhoon slammed into the southeastern Philippines on Thursday, toppling trees, ripping tin roofs and knocking down power as it blew across island provinces where nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated.
Coast guard personnel were rescuing residents stranded by chest-deep waters in a southern province, where pounding rains swamped villages in brownish water. In southern Cagayan de Oro city, footage showed two rescuers struggling to keep a month-old baby inside a laundry basin above the waters and shielded from the wind and rain with an umbrella.
Forecasters said Typhoon Rai further strengthened with sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 270 kph (168 mph) as it blew from the Pacific Ocean into the Siargao Islands. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.” Read more at AP News
“SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Some former vaccine skeptics in Eastern Europe have shifted over to the other side as coronavirus infections surge, countries are making it more difficult for the unvaccinated to travel abroad and authorities battle against government distrust and vaccine disinformation.” Read more at AP News
“Chicago woman whom police officers forced to stand naked while they searched her apartment will receive a $2.9 million settlement.” Read more at New York Times
“Bruce Springsteen sold his music catalog to Sony Music Entertainment. The transaction’s value may exceed $500 million.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: bell hooks, who used all lowercase letters in her name, pushed feminism to include the voices of Black and working-class women. She died at 69.” Read more at New York Times
“Before he could even complete his first season in the NFL, Urban Meyer was fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars late Wednesday night, bringing an end to his brief but tumultuous reign.
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season, starting with Sunday's game against the Houston Texans.
Meyer, 57, was hired in January with much fanfare by Jaguars owner Shad Khan in an effort to turn around a team that finished 1-15 in 2020.
Despite having no previous NFL coaching experience, Meyer boasted impeccable college credentials after winning two national championships at the University of Florida (2006 and 2008) and one at Ohio State (2014). His overall record as a college head coach was 187-32 (.854).
In Jacksonville, Meyer's return to the state of Florida coincided with the arrival of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
However, Meyer's first NFL season was plagued by missteps from the start.
In February, Meyer hired Chris Doyle, the former University of Iowa strength coach who allegedly made racist comments and bullied players, as the team's director of sports performance. One day later, Doyle resigned amid backlash to his hiring.
Meyer was also fined $100,000 before the start of training camp for violating practice rules during organized team activities.” Read more at USA Today
“TikTok is adjusting its algorithm to avoid showing users the same types of videos too frequently, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer scoops.
Why it matters: TikTok says the adjustments are being made to ensure it isn't inadvertently reinforcing viewpoints that could be bad for a person's well-being.
The company is testing ways to avoid recommending content that, viewed sparingly, isn't harmful, but viewed sequentially could be problematic, like extreme dieting videos.
It's also evaluating whether its algorithms inadvertently recommend content that could take a toll on someone's health if it becomes the majority of what they watch, like videos about loneliness or extreme weight loss.
TikTok says these efforts are being informed by experts in medicine, clinical psychology, AI ethics and more.
How it works: TikTok's algorithm was built to avoid redundancies that could bore users, like showing sequential videos from the same creators.
The changes will ensure that videos aren't just from different creators and use different audio, but also don't feature the same types of topics that, consumed over and over, could be harmful.” Read more at Axios