China, US pledge to increase cooperation at UN climate talks
The world’s top carbon polluters, China and the United States, agreed Wednesday to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions, signaling a mutual effort on global warming at a time of tension over their other disputes. In back-to-back news conferences at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and U.S. counterpart John Kerry said the two countries would work together to accelerate the emissions reductions required to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
After promise, Musk sells $1.1B in Tesla shares to pay taxes
After making a promise on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold about 900,000 shares of the electric car maker’s stock, netting over $1.1 billion that will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options. The sales, disclosed in two regulatory filings late Wednesday, will cover tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. He exercised options to buy just over 2.1 million shares for $6.24 each. The company’s stock closed Wednesday at $1,067.95 per share. After the transactions, Musk still owns about 170 million Tesla shares.
Man sentenced to 41 months for assaulting officer in Capitol riot
A former New Jersey gym owner who was the first person to plead guilty to assaulting a police officer during the attack on the Capitol in January was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison, the most severe punishment given to any of the more than 650 people charged in the riot. Scott Fairlamb, admitted to breaking into the Capitol and also confronting a group of officers outside. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, Fairlamb apologized. But Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Fairlamb’s assault on the officer “an affront to society and the law,” adding that he needed to serve time in prison even though he had shown remorse.
Judge orders arrest of Puerto Rico power company CEO
Puerto Rico’s troubled electrical system suffered through decades of mismanagement and corruption, bankruptcy and then Hurricane Maria, which wrecked power lines and plunged the island into darkness. Six months ago, the government privatized the grid in an attempt to leave past problems behind and rebuild. But the first few months of privatization led to more power outages. And now the head of the new electrical company is under an arrest warrant. On Wednesday, a judge in Puerto Rico issued an order to detain the chief executive of the electrical company, LUMA Energy, accusing him of failing to comply with a court order to provide documents to lawmakers.
10 states sue over vaccine mandate for health care workers
Ten states filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for health care workers, on the heels of a court decision that temporarily halted the broader U.S. requirement that workers of all large employers be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in eastern Missouri, claims the rule issued last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “threatens with job loss millions of health care workers who risked their lives in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to care for strangers and friends.” The 10 states are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
