The Washington Post
Weekly jobless claims plunge to 199,000, the lowest level in more than 50 years
The number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims tumbled to 199,000 — the lowest level since November 1969 — the Labor Department reported Wednesday, part of a spate of positive economic news that signaled that many of the wrinkles of the nation’ recovery continue to be smoothing out.
It was just the latest bit of good news for the labor market, which remains about 4 million jobs below pre-pandemic levels but has staged a strong recovery, adding about 581,000 jobs a month on average this year.
Separately, the Commerce Department said that consumer spending increased by 1.3 percent in October, its fastest pace since March, in a sign that Americans are continuing to spend. […]
“The economy is much stronger than what we had originally understood,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, who moved his firm’s GDP forecast up 7.2 percent from 5.6 percent. “The U.S. economy is booming right now. Despite the increase in inflation.”
Greenland ice sheet experiences record loss to calving of glaciers and ocean melt over the past year
Greenland has had a quite a year. For the first time in its history, rain fell at its summit. In August, it experienced one of the latest-occurring melt events in recent memory. This also became the third year with major melting events in the past decade. By the end of the melt season, the ice sheet lost more ice than it gained — for the 25th year in a row.
“The long-term past two decades have shown us the incredible wrongness in calling ‘glacial pace’ something slow,” said Marco Tedesco, a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
Greenland lost a net total of 166 gigatons of ice from September 2020 through August 2021. Overall, this loss is on par with recent decades — but how the world’s largest island arrived at that final number is not.
Competitive House districts are getting wiped off the map
From Texas to Oregon, competitive congressional districts are disappearing. As states finalize new borders ahead of the 2022 midterms, state legislatures are approving maps they hope will advantage one party in the coming struggle to control the narrowly held U.S. House.
In the 15 states that approved new congressional district maps as of Monday morning, the number of districts where the 2020 presidential margin was within five percentage points has fallen from 23 to just 10, according to a Post analysis. The new maps in those states have already netted a double-digit increase in solidly Republican seats compared with previous maps there. The completion of maps in more states will provide a fuller picture in the coming months.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jury finds 3 white men guilty of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s killing
The three men charged with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in a case that brought condemnations of racist vigilantism were found guilty Wednesday of murder, setting off exuberant outbursts inside and outside the courthouse.
After more than 10 hours of deliberation, the jury of 11 white people and one Black man found Travis McMichael, the man who killed Arbery with shotgun blasts, guilty of all nine counts against him. This included malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. His father, Greg McMichael, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, also were found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. […]
Outside the courthouse, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said the convictions will allow her slain son “to rest in peace.”
AP News
Collecting $26M award vs. white nationalists may be tough
Nine people who sued white nationalist leaders and organizations over the violence at a deadly rally in Charlottesville in 2017 won a $26 million judgment for the injuries and trauma they endured. But whether they will be able to collect a significant chunk of that money remains to be seen.
Many of the defendants are in prison, in hiding or have dropped out of the white nationalist movement. At least three of the far-right extremist groups named as defendants have dissolved. And most of the defendants claim they will never have the money needed to pay off the judgments against them. […]
Even with the many obstacles to collecting the full $26 million judgment, there are ways to secure at least some of it. Typically, plaintiffs’ lawyers will seek court orders to seize assets, garnish wages and place liens on property owned by defendants.
Australia’s Barrier Reef erupts in color as corals spawn
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of color as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes… The bleaching damaged two-thirds of the coral.
Gareth Phillips, a marine scientist with Reef Teach, a tourism and educational business, is studying the spawning as part of a project to monitor the reef’s health.
“It is gratifying to see the reef give birth,” Phillips said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s a strong demonstration that its ecological functions are intact and working after being in a recovery phase for more than 18 months.”
Bloomberg
Biden Vaccine Mandate Yields 92% of Federal Workers With a Shot
About 92% of federal government employees have had at least one Covid-19 shot, according to data released by the administration following President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for the workforce.
An agency-by-agency breakdown of compliance rates on Wednesday showed a range of outcomes. Across the government, 92% of the estimated 3.5 million federal workers have at least one dose. About 4.5% -- more than 157,000 people -- either have requested or been granted exemptions from the mandate, the report also found.
The Agency for International Development has the highest vaccination rate, with 97.8% of its workforce receiving at least one shot, while the Department of Agriculture has the lowest, with 86.1%.
Trump COO Won’t Be Charged in N.Y. Tax-Fraud Case, Lawyer Says
Trump Organization Chief Operating Officer Matthew Calamari won’t be charged by the Manhattan district attorney in a tax-fraud case in which the company and its longtime chief financial officer have already been indicted, Calamari’s lawyer said.
“I have been informed that there is no present intention to bring charges against Mr. Calamari,” Nicholas Gravante said Wednesday. “We believe that is the fair and just decision. What the future holds in terms of the district attorney’s continuing investigation is anyone’s guess.”
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to comment.
The New York Times
Trump Investigation Enters Crucial Phase as Prosecutor’s Term Nears End
A long-running criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump and his family business is reaching a critical phase as Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the prosecutor overseeing the inquiry, enters his final weeks as Manhattan district attorney.
Mr. Vance’s prosecutors have issued new subpoenas for records about Mr. Trump’s hotels, golf clubs and office buildings. They recently interviewed a banker employed by Deutsche Bank, Mr. Trump’s top lender. And earlier this month, they told a top Trump executive who had been under scrutiny, Matthew Calamari, that they did not currently plan to indict him in the purported tax-evasion scheme that led to charges against Mr. Trump’s company and its chief financial officer.
The developments, described by people with knowledge of the matter, show that the Manhattan prosecutors have shifted away from investigating those tax issues and returned to an original focus of their three-year investigation: Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets.
Republicans Fight Covid Mandates, Then Blames Biden as Cases Rise
[…] As cases surge once again in some parts of the country, Republicans have hit on a new line of attack: The president has failed on a central campaign promise, to tame the pandemic that his predecessor systematically downplayed. Democrats are incredulous, dismissing the strategy as another strand of spaghetti thrown at the wall.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates hit back hard: “If Covid-19 and inflation had lobbyists to help them kill more American jobs, Kevin McCarthy would be their favorite member of Congress,” he said. “He is actively undermining the fight against Covid, which is driving inflation.”
And Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called House Republicans “Covid’s biggest promoter” for “recklessly hand-waving lifesaving vaccines” and for promoting ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug falsely said to cure Covid-19.
Los Angeles Times
AP: Biden picks women of color to lead White House budget office
Two women of color are President Biden’s picks to lead the White House budget office, a milestone for the powerful agency after his first choice withdrew following criticism over her previous attacks on lawmakers from both parties.
If confirmed by the Senate, Shalanda Young would become the first Black woman in charge of the Office of Management and Budget, while Nani Coloretti, a Filipino American, would serve as Young’s deputy, making Coloretti one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in government.
“Today it’s my honor to nominate two extraordinary, history-making women to lead the Office of Management and Budget,” Biden said in a video announcement released Wednesday while he spends the Thanksgiving holiday on Nantucket island in Massachusetts.
San Francisco Chronicle
California cities rush to limit new law increasing density of single-family neighborhoods
Advocates of denser construction as a solution to California’s housing shortage scored a victory in September when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a long-sought law that will make it easier to build out existing neighborhoods by splitting lots, adding second units to the properties and converting homes into duplexes.
But the battle over SB9 — which could ultimately help add hundreds of thousands of homes across the state by allowing up to four units on some properties that had just one before — is ramping up again before the the law takes effect in January, as cities that opposed the measure move to limit its impact on their communities.
Los Altos Hills, the affluent Silicon Valley town that maintains a standard of minimum one-acre lots to preserve a semi-rural character and where homes sell for millions of dollars, led the way last week when it adopted an urgency ordinance, likely the first in the state, restricting the type of housing that residents can build if they split their properties.
The Astorian
Dungeness crab season set to open on time
Marine toxins, skinny crabs and contentious price negotiations have all had a hand in delaying the start of Oregon’s lucrative commercial Dungeness crab season in recent years. Not this season — at least not yet.
For the first time in years, commercial Dungeness crab fisheries in Oregon, Washington state and Northern California will begin on the traditional Dec. 1 opener after recent preseason testing showed high meat yield in crabs across the region. […]
A starting price per pound still needs to be set, but, [Tim Novotny, spokesman for the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission] said, “we are over one big hurdle to a potential Dec. 1 opener for the first time since 2014.”A
Pierre Capital Journal
South Dakota Supreme Court strikes down voter-approved marijuana legalization
The South Dakota Supreme Court struck down Amendment A, an initiated constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in South Dakota, on Wednesday morning.
"In a four-to-one decision, the Court held that Amendment A, as submitted to the voters in the November 2020 general election, violated the single subject requirement in the South Dakota Constitution," a Wednesday press release from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System read. "As a result of the constitutional violation, the Court has declared the amendment invalid." […]
Amendment A was approved by 54 percent of voters last November before Sixth Circuit Court Judge Christina Klinger declared it unconstitutional in February. Klinger wrote in her ruling that Amendment A represented a revision of the state constitution, not an amendment.
The Wichita Eagle
Kansas Gov. Kelly cites ‘compromise’ in signing vaccine bill opposed by Democrats
As Kansas lawmakers prepared to vote Monday night on a Republican-driven measure pushing back on federal COVID-19 vaccination rules, they began peering down at their phones at the new message that had just arrived.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly — without explaining why — had committed to signing the bill. […][
By signing the bill, Kelly fulfilled a promise earlier this month to challenge federal vaccination rules — making her one of the very few major Democrats to do so. But Kelly’s stance has also frustrated, even angered, portions of her base heading into a difficult election year.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
No phones, laptops or recording devices allowed at Duggar child porn trial
[…] U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued an order Friday saying no devices will be allowed during a hearing Monday nor the trial, unless the court grants specific, advance permission.
"Members of the public and the media are prohibited from entering the courthouse with cellular phones, recording devices or any other type of electronic device, such as laptop computers or tablets," according to Brooks' order.
Lawyers and their assistants in the courtroom are exempted from the order, but they have to email the U.S. marshals who provide security at least a day in advance and provide them with a list of who among their trial teams will be bringing electronic devices and a brief description of each device.
Federal prosecutors have said many of the 200 or more images [Josh] Duggar is accused of downloading showed children ranging from toddlers to 12-year-olds. At least three police officers downloaded file shares of child pornography from Duggar's computer, according to prosecutors.
NPR News
Hit hard by COVID, Native Americans come together to protect families and elders
The past year and a half have been stressful on many fronts for Chris Aragon, a caregiver for his older brother who has cerebral palsy.
"The left side of his body is atrophied and smaller than his right side, and he has trouble getting around. He's kind of like a big teenager," says Aragon, 60, who is part Apache and lives with his brother on the Fort Berthold Reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, in North Dakota.
His main goal throughout the pandemic has been to keep his brother safe from COVID-19, and "it's really been a struggle," he says.
Despite voter-approved anti-gerrymandering reforms, Ohio GOP still draws lopsided map
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has signed into law a congressional map that creates 15 new districts in the state, but anti-gerrymandering advocates are slamming the map saying it was drawn to keep a Republican stronghold in Ohio.
The plan has 12 seats that either heavily favor or lean in favor of Republicans. That's 80% of the districts in a state that voted for … Trump with 53% of the vote in 2020.
Voter rights groups say Republican lawmakers went out of their way to carve the map in a way that gives them an advantage.
"It is full of weird shapes and squiggly lines," says Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. "Maps don't look like this unless you're trying to secure a partisan outcome rather than fairly representing voters."
The Atlantic
The System Only Worked Because It Was Pushed
The men who killed Ahmaud Arbery will not get away with it. Yet the most surprising aspect of the trial is not the verdict, but the fact that the trial happened at all.
On Wednesday, a Georgia jury convicted Travis McMichael; his father, Gregory McMichael; and their friend William Bryan of felony offenses after the trio chased down and then shot Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, in February of last year. The men claimed that they were attempting to make a “citizen’s arrest,” having suspected Arbery of being behind burglaries in the neighborhood, an accusation they had no evidence to support.
The three men were not even arrested until May. The district attorney, Jackie Johnson, recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had been an investigator in her office. Johnson was later indicted for her actions in the Arbery case—allegedly preventing police from arresting the three men for Arbery’s killing. Video of the aftermath obtained by The Washington Post showed that Arbery was still alive when police first arrived but that “officers did not immediately tend to him and showed little skepticism of the suspects’ accounts on the scene,” the Post reported.
George Barnhill, who took over the case from Johnson, claimed the men had simply acted in self-defense when they chased down the unarmed Arbery, because “at the point Arbery grabbed the shotgun, under Georgia Law, [Travis] McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.” In this view of the law, Arbery was at fault for his own death by defending himself from three men with guns who followed him in a truck and attempted to cut off his escape. Barnhill also recused himself—but only after Arbery’s mother complained that he, like Johnson, had also worked with McMichael.
It took video of the shooting going viral, in May of last year, for the men to be arrested.
Rolling Stone
Some of the organizers who planned the rally that took place on the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6 allegedly used difficult-to-trace burner phones for their most “high level” communications with … Trump’s team.
Kylie Kremer, a top official in the March for Trump group that helped plan the Ellipse rally, directed an aide to pick up three burner phones days before Jan. 6, according to three sources who were involved in the event. One of the sources, a member of the March for Trump team, says Kremer insisted the phones be purchased using cash and described this as being “of the utmost importance.”
The three sources say Kylie Kremer took one of the phones and used it to communicate with top White House and Trump campaign officials, including Eric Trump, the president’s second-oldest son, who leads the family’s real-estate business; Lara Trump, Eric’s wife and a former senior Trump campaign consultant; Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; and Katrina Pierson, a Trump surrogate and campaign consultant.
‘Bitter,’ ‘Angry,’ ‘Enraged’: Reality Winner Blasts the Intercept After 4 Years in Jail
One of the first things Reality Winner did when she was released from federal prison in June was start building a paddock for a horse named Trouble, and a small shed for her gym equipment beside it.
Winner, a former NSA contractor, was training for a powerlifting competition when she was arrested in June 2017, accused of leaking classified information to The Intercept. When the FBI showed up at her house that day, her main preoccupation was getting her perishable groceries into the fridge and figuring out who would feed her cat and foster dog if she came in for questioning. She hadn’t processed the fact that, not only would she miss the competition, she wouldn’t go home for years…
[Glenn] Greenwald, Winner says, “used to represent integrity in journalism, and a lot of The Intercept people used to.” After her experience these last four years, she is much more cynical about both, particularly the outlet she leaked to.
“I wasn’t the first source that they burned and I definitely wasn’t the last — two other people have done prison time [due to] them being extremely sloppy,” Winner says, referring to Daniel Hale, sentenced to 45 months in prison earlier this year after he pled guilty to leaking documents about the U.S. military’s drone program, and Terry Albury, sentenced in 2018 to four years in prison after leaking documents concerning the bureau’s use of informants. “Every time one of their sources goes to prison, that’s another headline for them. That’s how they stay relevant — by burning sources, instead of the journalism that they once believed in.”
Gizmodo
John Deere Reports $6 Billion Profit After Fighting Workers Over Meager Wages
John Deere spent the last few months feeding lines about supposed great pay and benefits while 10,000 plant workers went on strike for five weeks. Now that it’s reached a contract agreement with the union, it can breathe easy and release the profits! $6 billion so far, with $7 billion on the end-of-year horizon. That’s already double its profits from last year. Some of that’s from charging farmers a premium for its proprietary replacement parts. Some of it’s from not paying workers a little more out of that comfortable surplus.
The final union-approved contract, close to Deere’s preceding “best and final offer,” grants 10% pay raises in 2021 and 20% raises overall in four years. That sounds great, until you learn that a 10% increase could mean pay bumps of less than $4,000 for some longtime workers. John Deere has said that, on average, employees already made around $60,000; labor reporter Jonah Furman has said that’s just an alternate reality, factoring in habitual, months-long unpaid layoffs.
Employees can supposedly get to a decent salary with performance-based raises, but those aren’t guaranteed, Furman says, since they’re contingent on the whole department meeting 115% of its ever-increasing quota.
Houston Chronicle
As homeless camps around Houston are 'decommissioned,' other U.S. cities look to copy the strategy
[…] Since more than $65 million in COVID-related funding has poured into Houston and Harris County’s coffers, they have worked in tandem with a number of partners to ramp up the housing units available to move people out of homelessness. As they’ve done so, they’ve picked up the pace at which homeless encampments are being “decommissioned” — the group’s term for offering the residents of a camp permanent housing, then clearing the site, usually with fencing, to prevent the camp from reforming. The process provides a way out of chronic homelessness to the many who choose housing and the services that go with it, a dislocation to the smaller group who do not.
The ultimate success of Houston’s encampment strategy could have rippling effects across the country. Cities including Austin and Dallas are seeking to emulate Houston’s program, said Marc Eichenbaum, special assistant to the mayor for homeless initiatives; others, including Denver and Spokane, Wash. are watching closely.
The Dallas Morning News
Abortion foes want Roe overturned, and Supreme Court hardly ever repudiates its own landmark rulings
The Supreme Court has overturned hundreds of its own rulings since 1789, but hardly any on an issue as divisive as abortion rights.
Next Wednesday, the justices will hear arguments on a 15-week ban adopted by Mississippi in open defiance of Roe vs. Wade, which gives women another two months to legally terminate a pregnancy.
Anti-abortion forces have waited decades for a court willing to overturn the 1973 landmark. But the conservative majority’s distaste for Roe is only part of the equation. […]
Public support is about 2-1 for Roe, and has been for decades. But the anti-abortion minority scoffs at the idea that anyone – judges, clinics or expectant mothers – should view Roe as settled law.
BBC News
Gun makers ask US court to dismiss Mexico's claim for damages
Gun manufacturers have urged a US court to dismiss a Mexican lawsuit that holds them responsible for the violence inflicted by drug cartels.
Mexico is seeking billions in damages, accusing manufacturers of facilitating the illegal trafficking of weapons.
The firms, including Smith & Wesson, argue their sales are constitutionally protected in the US, calling Mexico's lawsuit a "clash of national values". […]
Mexico's lawsuit accuses some of the biggest gun manufacturers of knowingly contributing to illegal arms trafficking and fuelling bloodshed through reckless business practices.
Climate change causing albatross divorce, says study
[…] Can climate change cause break-ups?
It might do, according to a new study which suggests albatrosses - some of the world's most loyal creatures - are "divorcing" more.
Research published in the Royal Society journal looked at 15,500 breeding pairs in the Falkland Islands over 15 years.
Albatross divorce is basically just cheating, in human terms. It's when one part of a couple mates with a different individual.
Mongabay
Marine noise pollution is bad, and deep-sea mining could add to the cacophony
It’s not easy to try to describe how a dolphin experiences sound in the ocean, says Lindy Weilgart, a noise pollution expert at Dalhousie University in Canada. […]
Whale and dolphin species have been known to stop feeding and vocalizing around certain types of human-made noise, such as sonar equipment, or to become disoriented and strand on shore, which is what happened to a pod of melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) in 2008 in Madagascar. Noise has also been shown to cause air damage to fish called pink snappers (Chrysophrys auratus) and reduce the larval quality of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Airguns have caused widespread death in krill and other kinds of zooplankton, and studies have even shown that human-made noise impairs aquatic plants like seagrass.
While evidence is mounting that anthropogenic noise adversely affects ocean life, regulatory measures aimed at curtailing noise pollution are generally lacking. This is certainly true in the context of deep-sea mining, a controversial activity that, if allowed to proceed, would entail corporations extracting metals like copper, cobalt, nickel and manganese from the seabed — and creating a lot of noise in the process.
The Local.se
Sweden’s new prime minister resigns after government falls
Just hours after her election, Sweden's incoming Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson handed in her resignation after a tense budget vote threw the government into crisis.
Her decision to step down followed a turbulent series of events that saw her budget fail to pass through parliament before the junior Greens Party announced it was leaving the coalition government.“There is a constitutional practice that a coalition government should resign when one party quits,” Andersson, a Social Democrat, told reporters.
“I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy will be questioned.”
EuroNews
"The Channel's worst disaster": at least 31 migrants dead after boat sinks near Calais
At least 31 migrants died after a boat sank off the coast of Calais on Wednesday.
The number of casualties was confirmed by French interior minister Gérald Darmanin after he visited the scene.
The accident marks the biggest loss of life during attempted illegal crossings of the Channel, according to IOM. It comes as record numbers of migrants have attempted to cross from France to the United Kingdom this year.
Slovakia becomes the second European country to go into lockdown as COVID cases surge
Slovakia declared a 90-day state of emergency and a two-week lockdown following a spike in COVID-19 cases that saw the country’s seven-day average of cases rise above 10,000.
The central European country is currently in the midst of the world’s fastest rise in infections, and the measures, which include closing all non-essential stores, as well as bars and restaurants, are meant to help the struggling healthcare system.
The decision came after president Zuzana Čaputová addressed the nation on Tuesday, saying that “Slovakia is losing the battle against COVID.” She also explained that the lockdown was needed as the healthcare staff became overworked, and the strain on the hospitals became almost unbearable.
Deutsche Welle
COVID in Germany: Incidence rate hits 400 for first time
The number of COVID-19 infections broke a new record on Wednesday with the seven-day incidence rate passing 400 for the first time since the pandemic began.
There were 404.5 new infections per 100,000 people in the past week across Germany as a whole, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported.
This was up from a rate of 399.8 recorded on Tuesday. Germany passed its previous milestone record of 300 on November 15, less than ten days ago. The rate of infection broke the 200 milestone just one week prior to that.
Russia: Two more Navalny allies go into exile
Two more Navalny allies involved with his most recent campaign are in exile, they said Wednesday.
Irina Fatyanova, Navalny's former campaign chief in St Petersburg, and Navalny's campaign lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov were the latest of his aides and associates to flee Russia.
In June, Russian authorities classified Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation as extremist along with several other organizations. They then closed in on individuals and groups affiliated with Navalny.
RTÉ
War in Tigray: How did it start and can it be resolved?
Ethiopia has entered its second year of civil war, as government forces, bolstered by soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea, clash with those loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front – with the conflict centred in the northern Tigray region.
Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, an estimated two million people have been displaced and millions more are hungry. Last week, new research showed that almost 200 children had died of starvation in hospital in recent weeks. […]
Just two years ago, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in brokering a long-elusive peace deal with neighbouring Eritrea. Having been elected in 2018, the then 41-year-old was seen as a reformer, who embarked on a whirlwind of change.
Italy tightens restrictions for those unvaccinated against Covid-19
Italy has tightened Covid-19 restrictions for people still unwilling to take a vaccine, sharply limiting access to an array of services and making jabs mandatory for a wider group of public sector workers.
Under the measures, which will come into force from 6 December, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government said in a statement.
Italy's move comes as much of Europe is increasing restrictions to try to grapple with a new wave of the epidemic.
Reuters
COVID cases break records in Europe, prompting booster shot expansion
Coronavirus infections broke records in parts of Europe on Wednesday, with the continent once again the epicentre of a pandemic that has prompted new curbs on movement and seen health experts push to widen the use of booster vaccination shots. […]
New cases have jumped 23% in the Americas in the last week, mostly in North America, in a sign that region might also face a resurgence of infections. […]
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledging that Europe was again at the epicentre of the pandemic, warned against a "false sense of security" over the protection offered by vaccines.
"No country is out of the woods," he told reporters, adding that he hoped a consensus can be found at a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting next week for an IP waiver for pandemic vaccines.
U.S. Justice Department to step up prosecution of unruly air passengers
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directed federal prosecutors on Wednesday to prioritize prosecution of airline passengers committing assaults and other crimes aboard aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Nov. 4 it had referred more than three dozen unruly passengers to the FBI for potential criminal prosecution amid a sharp rise in onboard incidents this year.
CNN
China's disappearing ships: The latest headache for the global supply chain
Ships in Chinese waters are disappearing from industry tracking systems, creating yet another headache for the global supply chain. China's growing isolation from the rest of the world — along with a deepening mistrust of foreign influence — may be to blame.
Analysts say they started noticing the drop-off in shipping traffic toward the end of October, as China prepared to enact legislation governing data privacy. […]
The law doesn't mention shipping data. But Chinese data providers might be withholding information as a precaution…
'Nothing about this is normal': RNC payments to Trump attorneys irk GOP officials
A pair of payments the Republican National Committee made to a law firm representing … Donald Trump is raising questions among former and current GOP officials about the party's priorities in a critical election year and its ability to remain neutral -- as long-standing RNC rules require -- in the 2024 presidential primary. […]
However, some RNC members and donors accused the party of running afoul of its own neutrality rules and misplacing its priorities. Some of these same officials who spoke to CNN also questioned why the party would foot the legal bills of a self-professed billionaire who was sitting on a $102 million war chest as recently as July and has previously used his various political committees to cover legal costs.
The Guardian
China accuses US of ‘mistake’ after Biden invites Taiwan to democracy summit
China’s government has accused Joe Biden of “a mistake” in inviting Taiwan to participate in a democracy summit alongside 109 other democratic governments.
Taiwan was included in a list of participants for next month’s Summit for Democracy, published by the state department on Tuesday. Taiwan is a democracy and self-governing, but Beijing claims it is a province of China and has accused its government of separatism.
The inaugural gathering is considered a test of Biden’s pledge that he would return the US to a position asserting global leadership to challenge authoritarian forces led by China and Russia. Neither is included in the virtual summit, scheduled for 9 and 10 December.
Scientists warn of new Covid variant with high number of mutations
Scientists have said a new Covid variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences.
Only 10 cases in three countries have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, but the variant has sparked serious concern among some researchers because a number of the mutations may help the virus evade immunity.
The B.1.1.529 variant has 32 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune system against Covid. Mutations in the spike protein can affect the virus’s ability to infect cells and spread, but also make it harder for immune cells to attack the pathogen.
Yahoo! News
The Russian Public Is Being Primed for Another of Putin’s Wars
Domestic propagandists and state TV pundits are promoting the idea of an inevitable confrontation with the West as Russia’s military posture grows increasingly hostile, causing major concern for its nearest neighbors and NATO. Ukraine remains the crown jewel for the Kremlin and the Russian public is being primed for the intended absorption of more territories under the umbrella of the Russian Federation, while NATO is being accused of fomenting the potential escalation.
“World War III is knocking at our door,” warned one top propagandist.
Whether or not the Kremlin is planning to speed up its creeping assault against Ukraine’s Donbas region in the near future is a mystery even to the most knowledgeable experts with close access to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nonetheless, they eagerly fulfill the Russian leader’s express intent to keep NATO—and the West in general—in a state of hypervigilance.
US News & World Report
Putin Spokesman: Russia Won’t Invade Ukraine – Unless it’s ‘Provoked’
Russia will not attack Ukraine and is not harboring “aggressive” plans, a Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday while also not ruling out military action following what Moscow considers fearsome threats from Kyiv.
“Russia is not going to attack anyone,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Tuesday morning, according to a translation of his remarks. “It’s not like that.”
He added, however, that Russia remains “deeply concerned about provocative actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the line of contact” as well as “preparations for a possible military solution to the Donbas problem.”
Al Jazeera
What to expect as Iran nuclear talks resume next week
Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States to revive the nuclear deal are set to restart next week after a lengthy pause that put prospects of restoring the landmark accord in doubt.
While a breakthrough is not expected, analysts have said that the talks set to begin in Vienna on November 29 will shed light on how Tehran will approach diplomacy under conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, whose government has upped Iranian demands before a return to the deal.
What next for the refugees stranded between Belarus and Poland?
Ali has been held at a detention centre in Lithuania along with six members of his family since they fled southern Iraq in July.
The 45-year-old is among thousands of people – mainly from the Middle East – who made their way to Belarus over the summer in hope of reaching the European Union.
As an activist in the 2019 anti-government protests, Ali says he was forced to leave Iraq when armed groups targeted him and threatened his family.
After landing in the Belarusian capital Minsk, Ali, whose name has been changed for security reasons, was caught by Lithuanian border guards while crossing the frontier.
MercoPress
UN Secretary-General arrives in Colombia for 5th anniversary of peace deal with FARC
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived Tuesday in Bogotá to participate in the ceremonies marking the fifth anniversary of the peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC Guerrillas.
“I have arrived in Colombia to mark the fifth anniversary of the Peace Agreement; an opportunity to renew our collective commitment to make its promise a reality and build stable and lasting peace,” said Guterres on Twitter.
During his two-day visit, Guterres will meet with exFARC leaders and combatants, with victims, with Government officials as well as with members of civil society to monitor how things have evolved since the accord.
Montana Senator presents bill to suspend Brazilian beef sales to the United States
United States Senator for the cattle breeding state of Montana, Jon Tester has presented a bill to suspend beef imports from Brazil. The congressman alleges that the Brazilian authorities were slow to notify the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about the two cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as “mad cow disease”, confirmed in September, and which led to an agreed ban con beef exports to China. […]
Brazilian meatpackers shut out of the Chinese beef market are finding some relief at U.S. butcher counters. In effect exports of Brazilian beef to the U.S. soared 183% during the first 10 months of this year, according to Brazilian Customs Office figures.
Ars Technica
Apple sues Israeli spyware group NSO
Apple is suing NSO Group Technologies, the Israeli military-grade spyware manufacturer that created surveillance software used to target the mobile phones of journalists, political dissidents, and human rights activists, to block it from using Apple products.
The iPhone maker’s lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in California, alleged that NSO, the largest known Israeli cyber warfare company, had spied on and targeted Apple users. It is seeking damages as well as an order stopping NSO from using any Apple software, device, or services.
NSO develops and sells its spyware, known as Pegasus, which exploits vulnerabilities in iPhones and Android smartphones and allows those who deploy it to infiltrate a target’s device unnoticed.