New virus cases begin to slow in US cities
With nearly 800,000 new U.S. COVID cases a day, deaths rising and federal medical teams deploying to overwhelmed hospitals, glints of progress have finally started to emerge. In a handful of places that were among the first to see a surge of the omicron variant last month, reports of new coronavirus infections have started to level off or decline. Daily case reports have been falling rapidly around Cleveland; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C. There were also early signs in Chicago, New York and hard-hit ski resort towns in Colorado that cases were hitting a plateau or falling.
Oath Keepers leader charged in Jan. 6 investigation
Stewart Rhodes, leader and founder of the Oath Keepers, was arrested Thursday and charged along with 10 others with seditious conspiracy over what prosecutors said was their plot to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year and disrupt certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. The arrest of Rhodes, 56, was a major development in the investigation of the Capitol attack. He and the other Oath Keepers are the first to be charged with sedition among the more than 700 people accused of taking part in the assault. Rhodes was arrested at his home in Granbury, Texas, his lawyer said.
RNC signals pullout from presidential debates
The Republican National Committee is preparing to change its rules to require presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge to not participate in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Republican committee officials alerted the debate commission to their plans in a letter sent Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. If the change goes forward, it would be one of the most substantial shifts in how presidential and vice-presidential debates have been conducted since the commission began organizing debates more than 30 years ago.
Russia, at impasse with West, warns it is ready to abandon diplomacy
Russian officials signaled Thursday that they could abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the security crisis surrounding Ukraine, bringing a week of diplomacy to an ominous end and deflating hopes that negotiators could forge a path toward easing tensions in Eastern Europe. One senior Russian diplomat said that talks with the West were approaching a “dead end,” while another said the Kremlin would wait until it receives written responses next week to its demands from the U.S. and NATO before deciding how to proceed. The U.S. representative to Thursday’s meeting also depicted the two sides as engaged in a standoff with no clear resolution.
NKorea threatens ‘stronger’ reaction as US seeks sanctions over missile Tests
North Korea warned Friday that it would take “stronger and certain reaction” if the United States helped impose more sanctions on the North in response to its recent series of missile tests. The statement by the North’s Foreign Ministry came after a proposal by the United States that the U.N. Security Council place fresh sanctions on North Korea after its six ballistic and other missile tests since September. Separately on Wednesday, the Biden administration blacklisted five North Korean officials active in Russia and China who Washington said were responsible for procuring goods for North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile-related programs.
By wire sources