COVID hospitalizations plateau in parts of the US
Fewer people in the United States are being admitted to hospitals with the coronavirus than a week ago, suggesting that the record-breaking surge in hospitalizations driven by the omicron variant could soon decline. But the country remains far from the end of the omicron wave, and in many areas it could be weeks before the strain on hospitals subsides. In much of the West, in parts of the Midwest and in more rural areas of the country, cases and hospitalizations are still growing. Most of the decrease in new hospital admissions has so far been in areas that experienced omicron outbreaks earliest.
US, Russia take more measured stance in Ukraine talks
The United States and Russia scaled back their rhetoric over Eastern European security Friday, agreeing to extend negotiations as the Biden administration pursues a diplomatic path to averting a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the United States would provide written responses next week to Russia’s demands that the West unwind its military presence in Eastern Europe. Both sides said that the two diplomats planned to speak again after that, and they left the door open to another conversation between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin to try to resolve the crisis.
Judge blocks Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers
A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the White House from requiring federal workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, months after the White House said that 95% of federal workers were already in compliance. The Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling. President Joe Biden announced in September that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to get vaccinated by Nov. 22. He said that there would be no option to get regularly tested, aside from some religious or medical exemptions. On Friday, the administration said 98% of federal workers are vaccinated or have sought medical or religious exemptions.
Jan. 6 panel seeks answers
on fake Trump electors
Law enforcement officials, members of Congress and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are digging into the role that fake slates of electors played in efforts by former President Donald Trump to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. In recent days, the state attorneys general in Michigan and New Mexico have asked the Justice Department to investigate fake slates of electors that falsely claimed that Trump, not Joe Biden, had won their states. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday demanding an investigation into the same issue in his state.
Saudi-led airstrikes kill scores in Yemen
The 7-year-old war in Yemen intensified again Friday when airstrikes by the Saudi-led military coalition on northern Yemen killed at least 70 people and knocked out the entire country’s internet, according to international aid groups and the rebels who control the area. Capping a week in which rebel drones struck as far away as Abu Dhabi and Saudi bombs rained down across rebel-held northern Yemen, the hostilities were fresh proof of the conflict’s obstinacy a year after President Joe Biden took office vowing to bring the war — and one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters — to an end.
IS fighters attack Syria prison to free fellow jihadis
Fighters from the Islamic State group attacked a prison in northeast Syria in an attempt to free thousands of their comrades, one of the boldest assaults by the terrorist group in the Middle East since the fall of its so-called caliphate three years ago, U.S. and Kurdish officials said Friday. The attack, which began Thursday night and was continuing late Friday, set off deadly clashes with the Kurdish-led militia that controls the area, killing dozens of people and allowing scores of prisoners to flee, at least temporarily, the officials said.
Oil spill triggered by tsunami devastates coast of Peru
The Peruvian government has asked for international support in responding to an oil spill off the coast of Lima that it called the city’s “worst ecological disaster” in recent history, as crude continued to wash onto beaches nearly a week after waves triggered by Tonga’s volcanic eruption disrupted operations at a local refinery. The Environment Ministry estimated some 6,000 barrels of crude had spilled into a biodiverse swath of Peru’s Pacific — well above the 7 gallons that the refinery’s operator, Spanish oil company Repsol, initially reported to authorities when the disaster occurred Saturday.
By wire sources
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