“An experimental Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax Inc. was 90.4% effective at preventing symptomatic disease in adults in a large clinical trial, the company said, results that move the shot a step closer to global use.
The 29,960-person study conducted in the U.S. and Mexico also found that the vaccine was similarly effective against newer coronavirus strains, especially the alpha variant now dominant in the U.S., Novavax said.
The vaccine, given in two doses three weeks apart, was also generally safe and well tolerated in the study, the company said.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Naftali Bennett is the new prime minister of Israel after a razor-thin 60-59 vote on Sunday ended Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run at the helm. Bennett, a far-right politician , made his mark by taking relatively extreme positions on the Palestinian conflict. He has vowed to do ‘everything’ in his power to block Palestinian statehood and supports annexing 60% of the West Bank. Bennett's appointment is part of a government coalition that seeks to break the country's political gridlock. He will serve as prime minister for the next two years and then centrist Yair Lapid will take the position for the following two.” Read more at USA Today
“The United States on Monday was hovering on the brink of another grim milestone: 600,000 deaths due to COVID-19 . More than 143 million Americans have been fully vaccinated – 43.1% of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and President Joe Biden has set a goal of 70% of all adults receiving at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by July 4. On the downside, a recent briefing from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that COVID-19 variants could lead to a fall surge in U.S. cases after months of decline if more people don't get vaccinated.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden is headed to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, the second stop on his three-part trip to Europe. While in Belgium, Biden will participate in meetings with NATO leaders where they will publicly recommit to collectively face defense and security threats.Topics include brazen cyberattacks; resource scarcity and migration flows exacerbated by a changing climate; Russian disinformation and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. Biden has spent the last few days at a Group of Seven summit in the United Kingdom with the White House framing the trip as an opportunity for the president to reaffirm ties with close allies while reasserting the U.S.'s multilateral values.” Read more at USA Today
Wasabi the Pekingese wins Best in Show at the 145th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.Michael Loccisano, Getty Images
“Wasabi, a 13 ½-pound Pekingese with a flowing lion’s mane of a coat, took home the most coveted prize in Dogdom – Best in Show at the 145th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Sunday night.” Read more at USA Today
“Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Greenville on Monday to kick off a national vaccination tour by top administration officials. The goal? Getting shots in the arms of 70% of U.S. adults by July 4 . First lady Jill Biden, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and members of the cabinet are also hitting the road, making stops in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana throughout the week. The tour is part of the Biden administration's ‘month of action’ to accelerate the country's vaccination efforts. If shots continue at their current rate – 64% among adults – the U.S. will fall short of Biden's goal.” Read more at USA Today
“Instead of pushing Ralph Northam to resign as Virginia’s governor after a blackface scandal, Black leaders pressed him to make political change. The state has since abolished the death penalty and allocated millions to Black colleges.” Read more at New York Times
“Manhunts were underway Monday for suspects in separate shootings in Georgia, Illinois and Texas during the weekend. Authorities in Savannah, Georgia, were searching for a gunman who opened fire outside a residence, killing one person and wounding seven. In Illinois, police were searching for two men who started shooting on Chicago's South Side early Saturday, killing one woman and injuring nine people. A third shooting took place early Saturday in Austin, Texas, killing one person and injuring 13. One suspect was arrested in connection with the shooting, while another remains at large.” Read more at USA Today
“Alton Sterling’s family reached a $4.5 million settlement with Baton Rouge, La., nearly five years after the police fatally shot him.” Read more at New York Times
“A judge says a Texas hospital system can require employee vaccinations.
U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes on Saturday upheld Houston Methodist system’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement, the first time a federal court has ruled on the legality of such an employer mandate due to the pandemic. She dismissed a lawsuit brought by more than 100 of the system’s 26,000 workers who contended that the federally approved vaccines are experimental and dangerous, and claimed the mandate unlawfully forced them to be human ‘guinea pigs.’ Among other claims, the suit said the system’s policy violated a federal law governing the protection of ‘human subjects.’ Hughes disagreed with the comparison and said the lawsuit’s legal assertions misinterpreted the law.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Justice Department during the Trump years not only secretly sought the email and phone logs of U.S. journalists and at least two Democratic lawmakers who were investigating Trump but also subpoenaed from Apple in 2018 information about Trump’s first White House counsel, Don McGahn, and barred Apple from disclosing that fact to McGahn, the West Wing attorney who represented the presidency, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
The New York Times: McGahn was a source for The Washington Post in 2018 while explaining a nuance of a 2017 encounter with Trump, also disclosed by The New York Times and denied by the president, in which Trump sought McGahn’s help to oust former special counsel Robert Mueller. McGahn in 2017 did not heed the president’s entreaty.
The drip, drip, drip of disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain information in secret about a wide range of targets has sparked a new internal inspector general investigation at the Biden-led Justice Department, prompted an emergency meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garlandand news media executives today, and inspired demands in Congress for sworn testimony from former attorneys general. Some Democrats in Congress described the department’s clandestine actions, apparently in search of unauthorized leaks, as an abuse of power, a serious breach between the legislative and executive branches, and potentially a trampling of the First Amendment.
The Justice Department, now serving a successor administration, has not publicly explained why Apple was being ordered to hand over subpoenaed data. The department has also not explained why the request was so broad, who approved it, and what was being investigated.
Former Attorney General William Barr told Politico during an interview on Friday that while he was attorney general, he was ‘not aware of any congressman’s records being sought in a leak case.’ He added that Trump never encouraged him to zero in on the Democratic lawmakers. Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has said something similar about being unaware of the moves (CNN).
Lawmakers want to know if the top law enforcement officials in the department for four years were truly unaware of the subpoenas to Apple, who else may have been targeted and who inside the government reviewed the information disclosed by the tech giant in the context of a government search for leaks.
Apple and other tech giants such as Google and Microsoft are in an uncomfortable position between law enforcement, the courts and the customers whose privacy they have promised to protect. The number of government and court-ordered requests for data has soared in recent years to thousands a week, according to The New York Times.
Left holding the rubble is Garland, whose department continued some of the sleuthing after Biden became president (The New York Times).
The Hill: Garland sparks anger with willingness to side with Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN on Sunday that subpoenaing tech companies for account data of lawmakers, their staffs and family members was a step that ‘goes even beyond Richard Nixon,’ adding, ‘Richard Nixon had an enemies list. This is about undermining the rule of law.’
The Speaker said a Justice Department probe into the matter is ‘not a substitute for what we must do in the Congress, adding that the House would investigate.” Read more at The Hill
© Getty Images
“American father and son plead guilty to role in Carlos Ghosn's escape. Michael and Peter Taylor were accused by Japanese authorities of helping spirit the former Nissan chief out of Japan on a private jet.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader, appeared in court on Monday for the start of a weeks-long trial that is almost certain to find her guilty of politically motivated charges.
The 75-year-old is now facing a predicament worse than her 15 years under house arrest, persecuted by a military junta that is determined to keep her isolated as anger and protests rage across the country.
Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado since the military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, detaining the civilian leader, her chief ministers and advisers. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won elections in a landslide in November for the second time, but the military claimed the vote was fraudulent, canceled the result and took over the government.
Family members, U.S. officials press Myanmar for release of detained journalist Danny Fenster
In the months that followed, millions took to the streets in protest and worked to delegitimize the government through a campaign of civil disobedience. The military regime has responded with characteristic brutality, detaining almost 5,000 people. More than 800 have been killed in crackdowns on street protests and in military operations since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).” Read more at Washington Post
“There is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan. It’s the same in Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, too.
After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early. The once-quiet job of election administration has become a political minefield thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud that continue to be pushed by many in the Republican Party.
The exits raise a pressing question: Who will take these jobs? Barb Byrum, clerk of Ingham County in Michigan, has an idea.
‘These conspiracy theorists are in it for the long haul. They’re in it to completely crumble our republic, and they’re looking at these election administrator positions,’ said Byrum, a Democrat. ‘They’re playing the long game.’
It's difficult to quantify exactly how many election officials across the country have left their posts and why, since the departures are not generally tallied. Retirements also are common after presidential elections.
But in places that do track such information, along with anecdotal accounts from county officials, it is clear that many have recently left because of the newfound partisan rancor around the jobs and the threats many local election workers faced leading up to the November election and afterward as former president Donald Trump and his allies challenged the results.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Ned Beatty, the legendary character actor who had roles in classic dramas ‘Network,’ ‘Nashville,’ and 1978's ‘Superman,’ has died. He was 83.” Read more at USA Today
“The Bureau of Indian Affairs promised to reform tribal jails. NPR uncovered neglect, disrepair and the deaths of at least 19 men and women since 2016 at the Shiprock District Department of Corrections facility. Read the story here.” Read more at NPR
“Zoom is the most popular video conferencing software and many people's communications lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear the story about how the tiny company beat tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Cisco.” Read more at NPR
“A year after several high-profile police killings, polls show that white support for the movement has not only waned, but is lower than it was before. On this episode, two researchers explain why last year so-called racial reckoning was always shakier than it looked.” Read more at Code Switch
“The West is experiencing its worst drought in 20 years, in both extent and severity, Andrew Freedman writes in Axios Generate.
Triple-digit temperatures are expected today in a half-dozen states.
What we're watching: The all-time high for Vegas (117°F) may topple, along with statewide records for Arizona (128°F) and Nevada (125°F).” Read more at Axios
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images
“What causes the northern lights? Scientists say they finally know for sure.” Read more at NPR
“Rising deductibles and out-of-pocket costs are increasingly leaving patients responsible for steep medical bills, Axios Vitals found in a joint investigation with Johns Hopkins University.
Stephen Swett, a 44-year old truck driver, went to the emergency room at Westchester Medical Center in New York in 2018, seeking help for withdrawal from Suboxone, which treats opioid addiction.
He says the hospital didn't do anything: He just sat on a gurney, then was discharged. But last June — 28 months later — the hospital filed a court summons in an effort to collect $2,539.43 it said he owed.
Among our findings:
Medical debt comprises 58% of all debt collections in the U.S. and has caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to file for bankruptcy.
Some hospitalsturn to liens instead of lawsuits. Liens can allow hospitals to claim a portion of a personal-injury settlement — and can catch patients off-guard.
From 2018 to mid-2020, the period covered by our study, just 10 hospitals were responsible for 97% of court actions against patients. The two leaders were VCU Medical Center in Richmond and University Hospital in Charlottesville, Va., both of which stopped suing patients in 2020.
Data: Johns Hopkins University. Chart: Will Chase/Axios
Most top hospitals charge a more than 5x markup, Axios health care editor Tina Reed writes.
Some of the hospitals with the highest revenue also have some of the highest prices, charging an average of 10 times more than the actual cost of the care they deliver.
Of the top 100 largest hospitals in the U.S., 57 were charging more than five times the average cost of the care they provided.
Hospitals said few ever pay the actual price — it's a tactic to negotiate with insurers. But the prices can be used for uninsured patients. And a 2017 study showed that each additional dollar of list price results in 15–20 cents more revenue for the hospital, incentivizing higher markups.
Go deeper: Explore the project, including searchable data on the top 100 U.S. hospitals (Search by state, city or hospital).” Read more at Axios
No posts