A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction to block Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health workers. The president had required workers in hospitals and nursing homes to receive at least one vaccine shot by 6 December. Fourteen states, led by Louisiana, sued in opposition to the mandate.
The primetime CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was suspended. This was in light of new evidence that he used his position to gain intel on the women accusing his brother, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment. Chris Cuomo also tried to make his brother aware of upcoming coverage of the scandal, according to evidence released by New York’s attorney general.
The Centers for Disease Control has updated its coronavirus-related travel advisories for Niger, Papua New Guinea, Poland and Trinidad and Tobago. The CDC now lists all four countries under Level 4, which is categorized as Very High for Covid-19. Officials advise Americans to avoid travel to these countries, and if travel to these countries is necessary, to make sure to be fully vaccinated before doing so.
Mark Meadows, formerly Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has reached an agreement to cooperate, at least initially, with the bipartisan House committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol, according to reports. Meadows is providing records and agreeing to appear for an initial interview.
Dr Mehmet Oz of TV fame is planning to run for senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican. Oz has attracted controversy for promoting treatments not supported by scientific evidence.
Federal judge blocks Biden vaccine mandate for health workers
A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction to block Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health workers.
The president had required workers in hospitals and nursing homes to receive at least one vaccine shot by 6 December. Fourteen states, led by Louisiana, sued in opposition to the mandate.
“There is no question that mandating a vaccine to 10.3 million health care workers is something that should be done by Congress, not a government agency,” wrote Terry Doughty, the US judge who issued to ruling. “It is not clear that even an act of Congress mandating a vaccine would be constitutional.”
The primetime CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was suspended in light of new evidence that he used his position to gain intel on the women accusing his brother, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Chris Cuomo also tried to make his brother aware of upcoming coverage of the scandal, according to evidence released by New York’s attorney general.
My colleague Oliver Milman reports:
A transcript of an interview with the younger Cuomo showed that at one point the TV host texted Melissa DeRosa, his brother’s top aide, to say “I have a lead on the wedding girl”. It was a reference to Anna Ruch, a woman who accused Andrew Cuomo of attempting to kiss her at a wedding.
Chris Cuomo told investigators a “source” told him about Ruch and a friend told him that “maybe she had been put up to it”.
The broadcaster also used his contacts to warn his brother, via DeRosa, of yet-to-be-published media reports regarding allegations against him.
“I would – when asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” Cuomo told investigators.
Chris Cuomo has acknowledged that he advised his brother on how to respond to a scandal that engulfed his administration, but the extent of his involvement has only now become clear.
At the press conference, Omar played a threatening voicemail, which she said she received “hours after” she got off a phone call with Boebert.
Boebert had phoned to ostensibly apologize for making offensive comments, but Omar called the interaction “unproductive,” noting that her colleague “doubled down on her rhetoric.”
“I wish I could say the congresswoman is an outlier” in making Islamaphobic comments, Omar said during the press conference, referring to Boebert.
On the voicemail, a male voice is heard threatening: “I would love an opportunity to take you off the face of the earth... you will not live much longer bitch.”
At a Muslim Caucus press conference on the representative Lauren Boebert’s Islamaphobic comments, the congressman Andre Carson emphasized that his colleague’s conduct was dangerous.
“Now let’s be clear, this is not about hurt feelings or mean-spirited words, this is about calling out individuals who deliberately incite violence and irresponsibly spread lies and misinformation,” he said.
Ilhan Omar added: “The truth is that Islamophobia pervades our culture, our politics and even policy decisions.”
An expert committee has recommended that the Food and Drug Administration approve Merk’s Covid pill for high-risk adults.
The drug, molnupiravir, has been shown to reduce hospitalization and death from the Delta, Mu and Gamma variants. The pill, which if authorized would likely be recommended only for patients who are older and have comorbidities that make them extra vulnerable to Covid-19, could be available by the end of the year.
A similar treatment from Pfizer has been shown to be more effective than Merck’s drug, and will likely also get authorization in the coming weeks.
Federal prosecutors began their aggressive cross-examination of the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes on Tuesday, in Silicon Valley’s highest-profile trial in decades.
Holmes entered the federal courthouse in San Jose, California, flanked by her partner, Billy Evans, and her mother for her fifth day on the standfighting charges that she lied about the company’s core blood-testing technology. She faces 11 counts of fraud and up to 20 years in prison.
Assistant US attorney Robert Leach targeted Holmes’s assertions that she did not know about the failures of the company’s proprietary tests, zeroing in on methods she used to quash whistleblowers and investigations into the company.
Holmes previouslytestified she believed Theranos’s technology to be more accurate than it was due to successful early trials. She cited studies conducted by Schering-Plough (a pharmaceutical firm that later became Merck) and Pfizer, saying that at the time the numbers meant “our system was working well”.
Joe Biden is speaking in Rosemount, Minnesota, touting the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson are expected to hold a press conference soon about far-right congresswoman Lauren Boebert and her Islamophobic remarks.
The Centers for Disease Control heightened the coronavirus-related travel advisories for four countries: Trinidad and Tobago, Niger, Papua New Guinea and Poland.
A stopgap funding bill is expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives soon ahead of the 3 December deadline.
Joe Biden is speaking to widespread applause in Rosemount, Minnesota, but it appears not everyone was happy to see him.
A pool report noted that about 100 anti-Biden people gathered near the location, one person waving a “Build Back Broke” sign playing on the Build Back Better Act. Others waved Trump flags and wore shirts with the coded “Let’s Go Brandon” message that translates to “Fuck Joe Biden” - while others waved signs just flat-out reading “Fuck you, Joe Biden”.
Joe Biden is addressing the nation’s infrastructure now. He noted that in 2007, Minnesota was one of the first to sound the alarm over the country’s infrastructure when the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapsed, killing 13 and injuring 145.
“Our infrastructure used to be rated the best in the world,” he said. “According to the World Economic Forum, we now rank 13th in the world. We’re turning things around in a big way now, and it starts with roads and bridges.”
Joe Biden took the opportunity to urge, once again, all Americans to not only get vaccinated but to get their booster shots.
“The best protection is to get fully vaccinated, getting a booster shot,” he said. “I urge all Americans who haven’t gotten it yet to get it done, get it done today.”
Joe Biden is in Rosemount, Minnesota to talk about the bipartisan infrastructure law. But first, he addressed the school shooting in Oxford, Michigan:
“My heart goes out to the families enduring the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one,” he said. “You have to know that whole community has to be in a state of shock right now.”
