Lines for Covid-19 testing have circled the block in New York City as cases spike.Desiree Rios for The New York Times
“Just days before Christmas, the U.S. is being hit by a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
More than 125,000 Americans, on average, are testing positive every day as the country confronts the highly contagious Omicron variant. Hospitalizations have increased nearly 20 percent in two weeks, taxing already exhausted health care workers. President Biden will address the nation on Tuesday.
Experts are urging adults to get vaccinated and boosted. Studies indicate that vaccines, and especially boosters, may offer protection against severe Covid-19. Yet among vaccinated Americans, only 30 percent have received a third dose.
The Omicron-fueled spike is swamping the nation’s testing capacity. As the variant spreads, regular home testing can lower risk and ease worry. Here’s how to use home tests (once you find them) and what to do if you test positive.
The Labor Department pushed its deadline for large companies to mandate vaccines to Feb. 9. See where U.S. employees are affected by the requirements.” Read more at New York Times
Filling out paperwork to receive the Sputnik vaccine in Moscow in July.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Most of the world’s vaccines provide almost no defense against infection from Omicron, studies show.
All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced with a booster, appear to have success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.
The other shots — including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines made in China and Russia — do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. The gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.
Nations across Europe are tightening restrictions to prevent the spread from Omicron. The Netherlands became the first European country to announce a full lockdown to fight the variant. France is tightening rules for the unvaccinated. London declared a ‘major incident’ — or emergency — for the first time since January.” Read more at New York Times
A relative looked at the damage after a U.S. drone strike killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
“A five-year Times investigation found that the U.S. air wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan led to thousands of civilian deaths.
Hidden Pentagon records show a pattern of failures in U.S. airstrikes — a sharp contrast to the American government’s image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs.
The military’s own confidential assessments of over 1,300 reports of civilian casualties since 2014, obtained by The Times, lays bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children. None of these failures resulted in a finding of wrongdoing. We are making these Pentagon records public.
This is the first of a two-part investigation. Here are the key takeaways.” Read more at New York Times
In a moment of unity, lawmakers held a vigil honoring the 800,000 Americans who have died from Covid.Tom Brenner for The New York Times
“Congress ended its session with divisions as bitter as ever.
President Biden and Democrats can point to some major successes in 2021, including a $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan with a $300-per-child income support that slashed poverty rates; a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that had eluded the two previous presidents; the confirmation of 40 judges in Biden’s first year, the most of any president since Ronald Reagan; and a House inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
But those achievements were overshadowed by legislative setbacks and a sense that Congress was not rising to meet a perilous moment in history. ‘It has been a horrible year, hasn’t it?’ asked Senator Lisa Murkowski.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — Imagine the angst and anger among Democrats if Republicans take control of the House after next year’s midterm elections and Nancy Pelosi has to hand over the speaker’s gavel to the other party.
Now imagine she’s handing it to Donald Trump.
In what could be the ultimate trolling of Democrats, some prominent Trump allies are suggesting House Republicans should elect him speaker if they hold the majority, a move that would place him second to the vice president in the line of succession for the presidency and allow him to preside over a chamber that an angry mob of supporters tried to forcibly enter during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump has fueled the speaker idea by suggesting he’s interested.
As bizarre as it seems, it’s not impossible.
Although every previous speaker has been an elected House member, the Constitution does not require it and scholars agree there is nothing legally preventing Republicans from electing Trump to the job. Analysts think it’s unlikely to happen and some have cautioned against giving the notion too much attention, but the past few years have shown that even the most outrageous scenarios — like a president refusing to concede an election he clearly lost — can’t entirely be dismissed….
The possibility, however, is concerning enough that Representative Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, introduced legislation last summer, yet to receive a vote, that would require the speaker be an elected House member. And some Republicans are worried the issue could be used to boost Democratic candidates next year. One group, the Renew America Movement, a coalition of Republicans and independents opposed to political extremism, recently used the specter of Trump as speaker to urge the reelection of moderate Democrats in swing districts.” Read more at Boston Globe
Campaign posters greeted shoppers ahead of elections today.Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times
“We’re waiting for election results out of Hong Kong, but the writing is already on the wall.
The election is the first since Beijing imposed a drastic overhaul of the political system to allow only ‘patriots’ to run for office, tightening the Communist Party’s grip over the territory.
Candidates have been vetted by national security bodies, and the establishment’s near-total control of the legislature is now guaranteed. The crackdown has driven most of the city’s popular pro-democracy candidates either into police custody or exile. Officials urged the public to vote, but turnout was expected to be low.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, is the territory’s most unpopular leader ever, polls show. Yet she now appears reinvigorated and ready for a second term, if Beijing allows her to stay.” Read more at New York Times
“Map by map, Republicans are chipping away at Black Democrats’ power.
In several states, a growing number of Black elected officials, from members of Congress to county commissioners, have been drawn out of their districts this year or face headwinds to hold onto their seats. Almost all of the affected lawmakers are Democrats. Most of the mapmakers are white Republicans.
Because partisan gerrymandering has long been difficult to disentangle from racial gerrymandering, proving the motive can be troublesome. But the effect remains the same: less political power for communities of color.
Last spring, Black and Asian groups stood together in response to the violence aimed at their communities. But calls for unity have ebbed over disagreements on one main issue: policing.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — A provision to permanently ban new offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts has been stripped from a draft version of a $2.2 trillion climate change and social spending bill after objections by Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.
Draft language of the bill circulated by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, which is led by Mr. Manchin, does not include the drilling ban. According to people who were briefed on Mr. Manchin’s position, he rejected the coastal drilling plan and also raised concerns about a provision that would cancel drilling leases and block future oil and gas extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, although that part remains in the section of the bill that he handled, according to a draft.
The drilling ban was the latest in a string of climate provisions that have been dropped from the pending legislation because of objections from Mr. Manchin. As the swing Democratic vote in an evenly split Senate, Mr. Manchin enjoys an outsize role and has been able to single-handedly set the limits for the president’s climate agenda.” Read more at New York Times
“House Republicans have begun mapping aggressive probes of the Biden administration if they win back the majority — including inquiries into the origins of COVID, a leak of IRS data about billionaires, and accusations the NSA spied on Tucker Carlson.
Why it matters: The plans, obtained exclusively by Axios, show House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy would make muscular use of majority powers for the last two years of President Biden's term if, as expected, the GOP wins the majority in next year's midterms.
McCarthy plans to send a spate of ‘preservation notices’ to departments throughout Biden's Cabinet, ordering them to retain documents that might be needed for future GOP oversight hearings.
Between the lines: Republicans want to deflect attention from the 1/6 commission, a real-time probe of real violence, death and looting in the Capitol.
As a prelude, House Republicans in August sent Biden a request to ‘preserve all records related to your Administration’s withdrawal ... from Afghanistan.’
Investigations planned by House Republicans — in parallel with their legislative agenda — show they hope to use congressional power to stoke culture wars for 2024:
IRS: Leak of a ‘vast cache of IRS information’ about billionaires to ProPublica.
National Security Agency: Tucker Carlson last summer accusedthe spy agency of targeting his show's communications. The NSA said he was never an "intelligence target."
Parents: Attorney General Merrick Garland's vow to mobilize the FBI against ‘threats of violence against school board members,’ after the National School Boards Association used the phrase "domestic terrorism." The association apologized for its letter.
Border: Record levels of illegal immigration.
COVID: Origins of the virus, and CDC communications about school closures and mask mandates.
Afghanistan: Decisions behind the withdrawal, and an accounting of Americans who remain stranded.
JEDI: A disputed cloud-computing contract.
What's next: McCarthy plans to beef up staff, counsel and other resources to be ready to extract information beginning Day 1 if the GOP gets the gavel.” Read more at Axios
“JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday that its forces apprehended four Palestinian suspects believed to have taken part in a deadly shooting in the occupied West Bank.
In Thursday’s incident, at least one Palestinian gunman opened fire on a car filled with Jewish seminary students next to a West Bank settlement outpost. Yehuda Dimentman, 25, was killed and two others were wounded near Homesh, which is considered illegal by the Israeli government.” Read more at Boston Globe
“MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military transport planes on Saturday delivered a shipment of humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan and flew back 200 Russians, Afghan students, and others, the defense ministry said.
The ministry said that three Il-76 cargo planes will make stopovers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before flying to Moscow. It said the planes were carrying citizens of Russia and Kyrgyzstan who wanted to leave Afghanistan, and Afghan students enlisted in Russian universities.
Saturday's mission is the latest in a series of such Russian flights since August. Previous flights have delivered humanitarian cargo and evacuated a total of 770 citizens of Russia and other ex-Soviet nations.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Singer Sir Rod Stewart and his son pleaded guilty to simple battery in a 2019 incident.” Read more at CNN
Sunday
“In Chile, voters head to the polls to choose a new leader to succeed outgoing President Sebastián Piñera. They will pick between two candidates who disagree on same-sex marriage rights, legalizing abortion, control of natural resources, and increasing programs to deal with migrants.
Monday
After three months of testimony from 32 witnesses, the fate of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is now in the hands of the jury. Holmes faces nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A jury of eight men and four women will begin deliberations tomorrow.
Jury instructions and closing arguments are scheduled to begin tomorrow in the case of former Brooklyn Center Police officer Kim Potter. Potter faces manslaughter charges for fatally shooting Wright after repeatedly yelling ‘Taser’ during a traffic stop in April.
Tuesday
NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX plans to launch the next resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft will deliver 6,500 pounds of cargo containing science experiments and crew equipment.
Winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is Tuesday or Wednesday. This is when the sun appears at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. It's the shortest day of the year and marks the beginning of winter. It's the exact opposite in the Southern Hemisphere.” Read more at CNN
Tiger and Charlie Woods during the first round Saturday of the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)
“ORLANDO — A hard but mere 298 days after the SUV flipped on a California hillside and came to rest in a sickening mangle, around the bend and alongside a pond and toward a tee came Tiger Woods on Saturday. He looked downright upright.
Just 297 days after his emergency surgeon used garish English words such as ‘comminuted open fractures’ and ‘stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia’ and “additional injuries to the bones of the foot and the ankle,” he walked to a No. 1 tee, got an intro for a small grandstand, heard a cheer and struck a ball. It looked familiar, actually.
At times, teaming with his 12-year-old son, Charlie, like last year, it all looked far-fetched because of this year — even more far-fetched than Florida usually looks.
Woods, who turns 46 on Dec. 30, spent a lot of time in a cart, allowed here because of the unofficial-ness.” Read more at Washington Post
Si Spiegel is one of the last living World War II bombers.Carly Zavala for The New York Times
“Si Spiegel can claim a dual legacy: as a war hero and as a father of the artificial tree.
Spiegel, 97, is one of the last bomber pilots of World War II still with us. He flew a B-17 on dozens of dangerous missions, saved his crew by belly-landing in a frozen potato field in Poland and then helped orchestrate a daring escape back out. But, like many other Jewish soldiers, he was denied promotion and, after the war, he was frozen out of aviation.
Instead, Spiegel went to vocational school and found a job as a machinist at a brush manufacturer. His bosses decided to repurpose the brush machines to make Christmas trees. Spiegel would go on to perfect their design and retired from his own artificial tree company, American Tree and Wreath, in 1993 as a multimillionaire. And there’s much more to his extraordinary life.” Read more at New York Times
Matthew Grimes, 13, and his brother, David, 11, started participating in e-sports during the pandemic.Jake Dockins for The New York Times
“Gen Z is moving away from basketball courts and soccer fields and toward PlayStations and Xboxes. The rise of e-sports is shaking up an entire industry.
Participation in youth sports was declining even before Covid-19. Then, between at-home learning and the shutdown of youth sports, a high-tech generation found even more escape and engagement on its smartphones and consoles. Even the Y.M.C.A. is getting on board: In April, it began a national e-sports pilot program in 120 of its U.S. branches.
In case you missed it: New gaming consoles remain in short supply this holiday season, spawning cottage industries of tipsters and scalpers making money off their scarcity.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW YORK (AP) — People’s Sexiest Man Alive of 2021 was indeed inducted into the vaunted Five-Timers Club on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but the surging Omicron variant of the coronavirus meant there was no live audience to see it happen. Instead, viewers at home saw new sketches taped earlier in the week, as well as highlights from years past.
The long-running sketch comedy show announced on social media Saturday afternoon that the night’s episode, featuring ‘Ant-Man’ star Paul Rudd as host, would tape without a live audience and with only limited cast and crew ‘due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“CNN will return to ‘flash studios’ — small studios that can be operated remotely by fewer people. —The Wall Street Journal
On Tuesday, President Biden will announce new steps against Omicron and issue ‘a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated,’ Jen Psaki tweeted.
New NFL COVID protocols will reduce testing for asymptomatic, vaccinated players since Omicron appears to be ‘very different’: ‘[W]hile more players and staff are testing positive, roughly two-thirds ... are asymptomatic,’ Commissioner Roger Goodell told clubs. Go deeper.
Paris canceled New Year's Eve fireworks and festivities on the Champs-Élysées.” Read more at Axios