As families around the country prepare to send out Christmas cards with letters and photos commemorating the year gone by, many elected officials do the same. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted one such family picture on Saturday, featuring himself and his clan armed to the teeth on a leather love seat, a merry tree glittering in the backdrop. Massie’s photo drew some ire.
A lot is still unknown around Omicron, but a worrying trend has become clear: This variant sure is spreading fast. In South Africa, the U.K., and Denmark—countries with the best variant surveillance and high immunity against COVID—Omicron cases are growing exponentially. The variant has outcompeted the already highly transmissible Delta in South Africa and may soon do the same elsewhere. According to preliminary estimates, every person with Omicron is infecting 3–3.
And there it is, the first trickle of data to confirm it. In the eyes of vaccinated immune systems, Omicron looks like a big old weirdo—but also, a kind of familiar one. That’s the verdict served up by several preliminary studies and press releases out this week, describing how well antibodies, isolated from the blood of vaccinated people, recognize and sequester the new variant in a lab.
Sign up for Conor’s newsletter here.Conversations of NoteAbortion has been discussed intensely this past week due to oral arguments in a Supreme Court case that could significantly alter the constitutional right to the procedure in the United States. At issue is a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contra current precedent. If upheld, the law will likely inspire new abortion restrictions in many red states.
Choosing what to read is both a small decision and one of utmost importance. For students, that choice is crucial in getting kids to read at all. Some books feel like magic, world-making and unforgettable. Some feel dangerous, upsetting. Many inspire both feelings, especially in young people. Reading is meant to be challenging, and literature should serve as a way to explore ideas that feel unthinkable, unfamiliar, and even illicit.
“Tell me again where Christ said ‘use the commemoration of my birth to flex violent weapons for personal political gain’?” the representative asked.
The middle class is facing serious economic hardship with little of the workplace flexibility now afforded to the well-off. Here’s how employers — and government — can help.
The companies said a third dose appears to provide a similar number of antibodies as a two-dose series against the original virus and other variants.
Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung has been convicted on felony charges of burglary and larceny for removing a sick baby goat from a goat meat farm in North Carolina in 2018. Hsiung is the co-founder of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere. He was given a suspended sentence and 24 months probation.
In the largest strike happening right now in the United States, 3,000 student workers at New York City’s Columbia University are on their fifth week of strike. Today the student workers are calling on others to help them shut down the university. Striking student worker, Johannah King-Slutzky, accuses Columbia’s administration of an “illegal form of retaliation” for threatening to replace the striking student workers who do not return to work by Friday.
During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S.
Despite promises to distribute shots based on need alone, U.S. negotiations with Myanmar and Taiwan have fanned fears that the administration is mixing politics and public health.
The president nudged Democratic senators to push through his Build Back Better plan, which includes several measures designed to alleviate burdens on consumers.
“When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just what is going on,” Biden’s chief medical adviser told CNN.
Powell’s comment came after the Fed already announced earlier this month that it would slow the pace at which it buys U.S. government debt and mortgage-backed securities.
In the end, President Joe Biden did what many close to him expected: He took a longer-than-anticipated amount of time to arrive at a reasonable, moderate decision that thrilled few but carried limited risk.
The Commerce secretary said in an interview that the Biden administration sees trading partners in Asia as part of the solution.
Aggressive action to deliver pandemic relief was the right call — and withdrawing support now would only hurt American workers.
The president needs people to overcome a new set of fears and direct their purchases into the areas of the service economy hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the news today: As the Senate’s Republicans stonewall each basic task of government, Democrats once again scramble to keep government open despite near-unanimous Republican opposition to doing so. A Senate leader is insisting that the Senate will act to make such stonewalling more onerous—but we’ve been hearing that all year.
On June 11, 2020, AT&T noted to customers that Bluetooth devices are not considered secure, and they shouldn’t be used for transmission of any secure data as there are four known Bluetooth security problems that right now aren’t easily addressed because they are “baked in” to the protocol. AT&T’s advice: If you’re doing anything secure, like talking to your bank, don’t use Bluetooth.
“And so this is Christmas, and where is your gun?” John Lennon’s 1971 hit “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” was a call for peace, not for packing heat, but apparently the lyrics need to be updated to fit the 21st century. Fifty years later, the NRA and Republicans have made sure that far too many Americans can easily answer that (updated) question.
As hate crimes against people of color continue across the country, members of faith centers and organizations are bearing the brunt of it. Faith institutions across the country are facing hate crimes at alarming rates, and an Islamic center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reported the latest incident.
Multiple fires were set near the prayer hall of the Islamic Center of New Mexico by a woman captured on surveillance video, local news outlet KOB 4 reported.
The Republican also complained that white defendants charged in the Capitol riot are being discriminated against “because of the color of their skin.
A Black couple in Northern California is rightfully suing the shit out of an appraisal company after getting a low-ball price for their property.
Since buying their four-bedroom, two-bath house in Marin City, a neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay area, in 2016 for $550,000, Paul Austin, 45, and his wife Tenisha Tate-Austin, 42, have made nearly $400,000 worth of renovations—which the obviously biased appraiser noted when visiting the house.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit from several contractors and seven states.
At a White House press briefing yesterday, NPR’s national political correspondent Mara Liasson asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki a question that’s been on many people’s minds: “There are still a lot of countries, like Germany and the U.K. and South Korea, that basically have massive testing, free of charge or for a nominal fee,” she said.
Democrats believe it will be difficult for Republicans to oppose popular elements of Build Back Better, like new child care funding. But the GOP isn’t playing along.
The committee has publicized 45 subpoenas to date, but has also quietly issued an unknown number of subpoenas and conducted nearly 300 interviews so far.
The former Trump official declined to cooperate “despite his apparent willingness to provide details … in the book he is now promoting and selling,” the panel said.