“A federal appeals court panel has allowed Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84 million US workers.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th US circuit court of appeals in Cincinnati overrules a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.
The mandate from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) was to take effect on 4 January. With Friday’s ruling, it’s not clear when the requirement might be put in place, but the White House said in a statement that it will protect workers: ‘Especially as the US faces the highly transmissible Omicron variant, it’s critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment.’” Read more at The Guardian
“The Omicron coronavirus variant has been reported in 89 countries and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to three days in areas with community transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, but it is unclear if this is due to the virus’s ability to evade immunity, its inherent increased transmissibility or a combination of both, the WHO said in an update.
The agency designated Omicron a variant of concern on 26 November, soon after it was first detected, and much is still not known about it, including the severity of the illness it causes.” Read more at The Guardian
Twins Jake and Ella Benson, 8, get COVID shots this week from nurse Vickie Webb at their middle school in Akron, Ohio. Photo: Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal via Reuters
“Parents of small children started 2021 with the hope of giving their kids a more normal life — and are ending it with 2020 déjà vu.
Why it matters: Parents have faced incredible stress over the past 18 months while keeping themselves and their kids safe and sane.
The status quo:
A wave of K-12 schools is going virtual, citing rising cases among students and staff.
A Pfizer vaccine trial for kids under 5 failed to generate the desired immune response, the companies said today.
Kids 15 and under aren't eligible for boosters.
Between the lines: Viral TikToks alluding to potential violence in schools today horrified parents and sparked law-enforcement alerts.
Some parents kept their children home. Some districts canceled classes or limited where students could go inside school buildings. Many increased security. (AP)
TikTok said: ‘[W]e are deeply concerned that the proliferation of local media reports on an alleged trend that has not been found on the platform could end up inspiring real world harm.’” Read more at Axios
“New York state set a single-day record for COVID cases, with more than 20,000 reported today.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The Trump administration deliberately undermined the nation's coronavirus response for political purposes, including by weakening testing guidance and championing widespread ‘herd immunity,’ according to a new report from the House panel investigating the pandemic response.
The Democratic staff report released Friday was a summation of the year's work investigating political interference in the pandemic response from Trump officials and the former president himself.
In interviews with officials and from uncovered emails and other documents, the committee found that the former administration failed to heed warnings about supply shortages, blocked public health officials from speaking publicly and neglected the pandemic response in order to focus on the 2020 presidential election and on promoting the lie that the election was ‘stolen’ from Trump through widespread fraud.
New evidence released by the panel Friday highlighted the frustration and anger among senior public health officials with Trump's embrace of the herd immunity strategy.” Read more at The Hill
“The CDC said adults should get a Covid-19 shot from Pfizer or Moderna over Johnson & Johnson’s. The move came after agency officials reported the rate of a rare but serious blood-clotting condition from J&J’s vaccine was higher than previously detected.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across many professional sports leagues as the NFL, NHL and NBA struggle to contain outbreaks.
Nearly 100 NFL players have tested positive for COVID-19 since Monday, the league’s most significant outbreak since the pandemic started in spring 2020. At least 39 NBA players were in the league's COVID-19 health and safety protocols by Thursday evening, while the NHL shut down three teams through the holiday break to curb the spread.” Read more at USA Today
“Pfizer is delaying plans to seek authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine for young children. The shot generated a weaker than expected immune responsein a key study of children ages 2 to 5, said Pfizer and partner BioNTech. The companies said they would begin testing a third dose in the children, and if successful, would ask U.S. health regulators to authorize use in the first half of 2022.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The CDC endorsed frequent Covid-19 testing to help keep students in classrooms. Some educators and parents have already adopted the test-to-stay strategy to keep children out of home quarantines. The CDC director said the policy should be implemented alongside other prevention measures.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A man who watched and cheered the Capitol riot, then moved to the front of the mob and hurled a fire extinguisher, a plank, and a long pole at officers, was sentenced Friday to more than five years in federal prison, the longest sentence given so far to someone charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Robert S. Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla., pleaded guilty in October to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon, and his original plea agreement called for a sentencing range of 46 to 57 months. But after his plea, and his entry into the District of Columbia jail, Palmer arranged to make an online fundraising plea in which he said he did ‘go on the defense and throw a fire extinguisher at the police’ after being shot with rubber bullets and tear gas.
That was a lie, Palmer admitted Friday. He had thrown a fire extinguisher — twice — a large plank, and then a four- to five-foot pole at police before he was struck with one rubber bullet. The lie indicated a failure to accept responsibility for his actions, prosecutors argued, and when US District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed, she increased his sentencing range to 63 to 78 months, ultimately imposing a 63-month term.
‘Look behind you,’ Chutkan instructed Palmer in the courtroom. ‘Those are US marshals. They ran from this courthouse. They put themselves in danger to protect the occupants of the Capitol. That’s what they’re sworn to do. They’re the patriots. The people working in the Capitol that night, they are patriots. Doing what they get paid to do, they didn’t know if they were going to come out of there alive that night.’
Palmer said, ‘I’m really, really ashamed of what I did.’
He said that while in jail he saw footage of himself on an MSNBC news program.
‘I was horrified, absolutely devastated to see myself on there,’ Palmer said.
In a letter to the judge last month, he wrote, ‘I realize that we, meaning Trump supporters, were lied to by those that at the time had great power, meaning the sitting president as well as those acting on his behalf.’
Of the more than 130 defendants who have been charged with assaulting police on Jan. 6, Palmer is the second who has been sentenced. Prosecutors gave him credit for surrendering in March and cooperating with the FBI, and asked Chutkan to give him the low end of the 63 to 78 month range suggested by federal sentencing guidelines. Chutkan said the average sentence given to defendants in that range was 66 months.” Read more at Boston Globe
“A judge on Thursday rejected an attempt by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Media to dismiss a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s coverage of the company’s role in the 2020 presidential election.
In the ruling, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Superior Court of Delaware, where Fox is incorporated, wrote that he had denied Fox News Media’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit because it was ‘reasonably conceivable that Dominion has a claim for defamation.’
Dominion, an election technology company, sued Fox News Media in March, accusing it of advancing lies that devastated its reputation and business. More than two dozen states, including several carried by former President Donald J. Trump, made use of Dominion, a Denver company founded in 2002, in last year’s election.
Along with another vote tabulating company, Smartmatic, Dominion was at the center of a baseless pro-Trump conspiracy theory about rigged voting machines that gave the election to President Biden. The false claims were promoted by the president and his advisers, including Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who appeared on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault at the U.S. Capitol is weighing whether to hire staff members who can analyze social media posts and examining the role foreign adversaries played in sowing divisions among Americans over the outcome of the presidential election, according to two people briefed on the committee’s decision making.
The new avenues of inquiry come as the committee, which currently has about 40 staff members, continues to subpoena testimony and documents.
Witnesses this week included William J. Walker, the former commander of the D.C. National Guard, who has said military leaders delayed the guard response on Jan. 6, and the conservative activist Dustin Stockton, whose lawyer said he is turning over a ‘treasure trove’ of documents that would have senior Trump allies and lawmakers ‘quivering in their boots.’
Mr. Stockton and his fiancée, Jennifer L. Lawrence, assisted in organizing rallies after the election advancing false claims about its outcome. But Mr. Stockton has said he was concerned that a march to the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Congress was certifying the election would mean ‘possible danger,’ and that his urgent concerns were escalated to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time, according to the committee.” Read more at New York Times
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled support for the bipartisan House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, saying what the panel is trying to uncover is ‘something the public needs to know.’
In an interview with Spectrum News that aired Thursday, McConnell said he looks forward to hearing what else the committee will reveal about the insurrection, a view that puts him at odds with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has attacked the work of the panel as purely political.
‘I think the fact-finding is interesting. We’re all going to be watching it,’ McConnell said. ‘It was a horrendous event, and I think what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.’
McConnell’s statements are noteworthy given that earlier this year he opposed the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission tasked with investigating the worst attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812 and President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In May, McConnell said a commission investigating the attack would be, under Democratic leadership, ‘slanted and unbalanced.’” Read more at Washington Post
“NEW YORK — The defense rested its case in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial on Friday, with the socialite and longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein asserting that she had ‘no need’ to testify because the prosecution failed to demonstrate her guilt.
Maxwell, in a standard exchange with U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan that is required to inform a defendant of their right to testify, went beyond what a defendant usually says when prompted to confirm her decision.
‘Uh, your honor,’ Maxwell said, making her first public utterance of the three-week trial. ‘The government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and so there is no need for me to testify.’
The U.S. attorney’s office rested its case a week ago after calling 24 witnesses, including four women who testified to varying degrees about the role Maxwell allegedly played in recruiting and grooming them to be Epstein’s victims. Two of the women also described unwanted sexual touching by Maxwell herself.” Read more at Washington Post
“SAN FRANCISCO — The mayor of San Francisco on Friday made a sharp break with the liberal conventions that have guided her city for decades, declaring a state of emergency in one of its most crime-infested neighborhoods.
Mayor London Breed’s announcement came just days after she emphasized the need for the police to clean up what she has described as ‘nasty streets.’ At a news conference at City Hall, steps away from where drug dealers openly peddle fentanyl and methamphetamines, she said, ‘We are in a crisis and we need to respond accordingly.’ She added, ‘Too many people are dying in this city, too many people are sprawled on our streets.’
The neighborhood, the Tenderloin, has been ground zero for drug dealing, overdose deaths and homelessness for years. But Ms. Breed said in an interview that she reached her ‘breaking point’ in recent weeks after meeting with families with children who live in the Tenderloin and said they felt constantly threatened.
Her actions and startlingly blunt language were a marked change in tone and policy in a city that has been polarized over homeless encampments and open-air drug use. Elected as a liberal Democrat, she spoke this week about ‘a reign of criminals,’ trash strewn across neighborhoods full of ‘feces and urine,’ and shoplifting at high-end stores that she called ‘mass looting events.’” Read more at New York Times
“Two years ago, federal agents arrested Puerto Rico’s former education secretary, Julia Keleher, as part of a sprawling corruption investigation whose accusations helped uncork public dissatisfaction with the island’s leaders and contributed to the furious ouster of a young and ambitious governor.
The accusations against Ms. Keleher and another top official set off the very first protests in the summer of 2019 against former Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, prompting him to rush home from a family vacation in France to what would turn out to be his final frenzied weeks in office.
On Friday, a federal judge in Puerto Rico sentenced Ms. Keleher to serve six months in prison and 12 months of house arrest and pay a $21,000 fine. She had pleaded guilty in June to two felony counts involving conspiracies to commit fraud.
Ms. Keleher’s sentencing came amid a new spate of corruption arrests — three mayors in three weeks — that has dominated headlines in Puerto Rico. One former mayor, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and receive kickbacks, was accused this month of awarding contracts worth nearly $10 million to an asphalt company that paid him off with cash and luxury wristwatches.” Read more at New York Times
“Istanbul’s stock market was twice forced to halt trading, and the Turkish lira continued to fall. The decline followed another decision by the central bank to cut interest rates under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who favors lower rates despite the advice of mainstream economists.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Haitians hoping to reach the U.S. are watching Chile’s election.
The outcome of Chile’s presidential runoff vote Sunday could result in hard-line policies toward Haitians living there, many of whom are hoping to reach the U.S. The conservative candidate has pledged to block what he calls a migrant invasion should he win the election, while his leftist opponent says he would end deportations of migrants in the country illegally and provide foreigners a path to legalize their status. Many Haitians who fled the struggling Caribbean nation in the years following a 2010 earthquake are now adrift throughout South America, where governments are hardening immigration policies. Their livelihood could depend on the election outcome.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“TikTok is flooding teen users with eating-disorder videos.
A Wall Street Journal investigation involving the creation of a dozen automated accounts on TikTok, registered as 13-year-olds, found that the popular video-sharing app’s algorithm served them tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within a few weeks of signing up. The videos include ways to purge food that health professionals say contribute to a wave of eating-disorder cases spreading across the country. Some included tips about taking in less than 300 calories a day, several recommended consuming only water some days and another suggested taking laxatives after overeating. On Thursday, several days after WSJ sought comment for the findings, TikTok said it would adjust its algorithm to avoid showing users too much of the same content, part of a broad re-evaluation of social-media platforms and their potential to harm younger users.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Russia makes major security demands
“The relationship between Russia and the West continues to deteriorate, with Russia sending NATO officials a new draft treaty demanding the alliance cease military operations in the former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as a demand that NATO not admit Ukraine. The officials immediately dismissed the proposal, and one Russia analyst said, ‘It’s hard to see how this leads to anything but further escalation.’” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Andrew E. Kramer and Steven Erlanger
“It’s the latest offensive in the conflict between Russia and NATO, of which the US is a member, in particular over the status of Ukraine. Russia has reportedly amassed troops across the border from Ukraine, which was a Soviet republic and which Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to subsume into his country since 2014.” [Vox] Read more at Brookings / Stephen Pifer and Adrianna Pita
“Putin, increasingly seen as an illegitimate authoritarian leader by the West, has few buffers against an encroaching western world order; attempting to annex all of Ukraine allows Putin to demand the attention of world leaders and assert himself and Russia as players on the geopolitical stage. Ukraine, meanwhile, has moved more toward the West and NATO under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky.” [Vox] Read more at New Yorker / Joshua Yaffa
“The EU and NATO have both promised severe consequences for Russia should it invade Ukraine. The EU alluded to ‘restrictive measures,’ or sanctions, and NATO warned that, ‘Any further aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and would carry a high price,’ although both bodies urged a diplomatic resolution.” [Vox] Read more at BBC
“US President Joe Biden has said that the US will not send troops to Ukraine, but told Putin in a call in early December that the US will consider devastating sanctions should Russian troops not pull back. A Biden administration official said that additional military support, including Mi-17 helicopters, could be sent to Ukraine.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Robyn Dixon and Paul Sonne
“All of the new films that have been added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Every year, 25 new films are added, and they are as eclectic as they are influential. This year's inductees include ‘Return of the Jedi’ (1983), ‘Selena’ (1997), ‘Strangers on a Train’ (1951) and, yes, 2008's ‘WALL-E.’ The full list is here. It would make a pretty cool movie marathon, wouldn't it?” Read more at CNN
“A third woman is accusing actor Chris Noth of sexual assault, following claims by two others earlier this week.
Noth, best known for his role as Mr. Big in HBO's ‘Sex and The City’ and the beloved show's new reboot ‘And Just Like That…’ has denied accusations of sexual assault.
The latest accuser, a 30-year-old tech executive, said the alleged encounter happened in 2010, when she was working as a hostess and lounge singer at the Manhattan restaurant, Da Marino. She was 18 at the time and Noth was 55.
The account in the Daily Beast from Ava, who was granted a pseudonym, details an encounter with Noth in the back office of the restaurant as she prepared her late-night exit after work. Ava provided her story to the Daily Beast on Thursday and said she wrote her account of the assault in October 2020.” Read more at USA Today