Top Items:
Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: MTG plays cat and mouse with McCarthy — DRIVING THE DAY — Just a few days after Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE called KEVIN MCCARTHY “weak” and said he needed to earn her vote to become speaker, the Republican lawmaker from Georgia took a different tone toward the GOP leader Friday night.
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Carl Zimmer / New York Times:
New Virus Variant Stokes Concern but Vaccines Still Likely to Work — The Omicron variant carries worrisome mutations that may let it evade antibodies, scientists said. But it will take more research to know how it fares against vaccinated people. — Scientific experts …
Erin Banco / Politico:
New Covid variant triggers urgent moment for Biden health team — The emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 has sparked urgent conversations among top Biden administration health officials about how to fend off a potential new surge in the U.S. and about the need to significantly ramp …
Discussion:
NBC Boston, Politico, BBC and Reuters
Reuters:
U.S. President Biden calls for intellectual property protection waivers after Omicron discovery — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday called on nations expected to meet at the World Trade Organization next week to agree to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines in the wake …
The Guardian:
South Africa accuses UK and others of ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to new variant — Travel restrictions on southern African states imposed by countries after discovery of B.1.1.529 already harming economy — Nick Dall in Cape Town and Lizzy Davies — South Africa has angrily condemned travel …
Discussion:
Telegraph, Slate, Simple Flying, HotAir and Politico
Carl Campanile / New York Post:
Gov. Kathy Hochul orders halt on elective surgery amid COVID spike, Omicron — Here we go again. — Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Friday to postpone elective hospital surgeries — something that hasn't been done since the worst of the initial coronavirus outbreak last year.
Discussion:
The Guardian and Trending Politics
World Health Organization: WHO:
Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico, New York Times, Washington Examiner, CNN, CBS News, dirco.gov.za, European Centre …, TheBlaze, BBC, Bloomberg, Outside the Beltway, Alternet.org, Reuters, NewsNation Now, ABC7, NPR, Breitbart, NOQ Report, Fox News, CBS Chicago, KOIN-TV, NBC Bay Area, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera, Slate, The Western Journal, Raw Story, Associated Press, Reason, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, Patriot Fetch, CBS Boston, Quartz and Townhall
Sarah Mervosh / New York Times:
In Minneapolis Schools, White Families Are Asked to Help Do the Integrating — In a citywide overhaul, a beloved Black high school was rezoned to include white students from a richer neighborhood. It has been hard for everyone. — MINNEAPOLIS — When Mauri Friestleben learned that Minneapolis …
NBC News:
Laser-focused on 2020, Trump seeks a Michigan Legislature that could help him in 2024 — Jon Rocha was settling in to watch the new “Ghostbusters” with his young daughter at the movies last week when he got the news: Former President Donald Trump had endorsed his bid for state representative in Michigan.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Bruce Weber / New York Times:
Stephen Sondheim, Titan of the American Musical, Is Dead at 91 — He was the theater's most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century and the driving force behind some of Broadway's most beloved and celebrated shows. — Stephen Sondheim …
Danny Lee / South China Morning Post:
BA to temporarily suspend passenger flights to and from Hong Kong — Two separate sources say British flag carrier took decision after at least one of its aircrew members tested positive for Covid-19 at Hong Kong airport Most of the BA staff on flight were then taken to Penny's Bay quarantine centre …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Associated Press:
Court blocks Covid-19 vaccine mandate for California prisons — WHO calls Omicron strain a ‘variant of concern’ as U.S. adds travel restrictions — A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked an order that all California prison workers must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or have a religious or medical exemption.
Discussion:
HotAir, The Hill and National Review
New York Times:
Seeking Backers for New Fund, Jared Kushner Turns to Middle East — Former President Donald J. Trump's son-in-law is trying to raise capital for his investment firm and is turning to a region that he dealt with extensively while in the White House. — As a White House adviser …
Discussion:
Insider, POLITICUSUSA, Digby's Hullabaloo and Raw Story
The National Interest:
Russian & Chinese Ambassadors: Respecting People's Democratic Rights — Anatoly Antonov, Qin Gang — The upcoming American-led online Summit for Democracy will stoke ideological confrontation. Faced with an array of global challenges, countries urgently need to strengthen coordination and cooperation for common progress.
Discussion:
TASS
Sonam Sheth / Insider:
Trump says top US general should be ‘tried for treason’ for intervening to prevent a war with China — Trump ripped Gen. Mark Milley and the journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in a new statement. — He accused Woodward and Costa of making up information in their blockbuster book “Peril.”
Discussion:
HuffPost
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The Daily Beast:
Former Trump Adviser Steve Cortes Out at Newsmax — Tensions have long simmered between the cable channel and Cortes, a diehard Trump loyalist whose public criticism of Newsmax's vaccine policy may have been the last straw. … Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes is out at Newsmax …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God., Raw Story, BizPac Review and Insider
Sarah Kaplan / Washington Post:
Oil and gas companies should pay more to drill on public lands and waters, Interior Department says — In an effort to boost revenue and protect the environment, the Biden administration on Friday laid out plans to make fossil fuel companies pay more to drill on federal lands and waters.
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