Melisanisa

How to Watch 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Online Free: Stream

Melisa Nisa — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 02:15:04 GMT

How to Watch 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Online Free: Stream

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns south of Boulder.

Hundreds of homes burned and tens of thousands of people were evacuated after a rare wind-driven wildfire tore through suburban neighborhoods in Colorado on Thursday, authorities said.

Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency in the area, calling the blaze — which ballooned to 1,600 acres in a few hours amid 100-mph winds — “absolutely devastating.”

After toppled power lines started the grass fire around 11 a.m. south of Boulder, the flames quickly spread through the towns of Louisville and Superior, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said during a news conference.

“This was consuming football field lengths of land in seconds,” Pelle said. “This was a horrific event.”

No deaths or missing persons had been reported, though he said he wouldn’t be “surprised if we find casualties.” One police officer was injured by flying debris, he said.

By 5 p.m., the fire had incinerated an entire subdivision of 370 homes in Superior and likely destroyed another 210 homes in the community’s old town neighborhood, he said. A hotel burned, a shopping center was in flames and the blaze was blocks from a hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfWGY1Afw5VXxjyxEdtMNAw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsHPf4s70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82ACzuOoeQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQc0Oz5Yb5c

Video broadcast by NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver showed huge flames roaring toward a Superior subdivision with dozens of homes. At least one was on fire. In a Louisville subdivision, video from the station showed several more homes consumed by flames.

A second blaze north of Boulder also ignited Thursday morning, though firefighters quickly extinguished it, the sheriff said.

The conditions prompted the evacuations of tens of thousands of people from Louisville and Superior, Pelle said. They also caused road closures and hundreds of power outages, and the winds toppled multiple “high profile vehicles,” the Colorado State Patrol said in a tweet.

Video from an evacuated Home Depot showed a parking lot that appeared to be engulfed by wind-whipped smoke. A similar scene was captured at a Costco in Superior.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist and extreme weather expert at the University of California Los Angeles, said it was "genuinely hard to believe this is happening in late December in Boulder."

But a combination of events — a downslope windstorm with 100-mph blasts and a fall that saw record heat and just one inch of snow — prompted fires that Swain called "extremely fast moving" and "dangerous."

The vast majority of Boulder County is experiencing extreme or severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and experts have partly attributed the West's increasingly intense wildfires to climate change.

The governor said the state recorded its three largest wildfires in recent history last summer, with each topping 200,000 acres. While some structures burned in those fires, he said, each ignited on wildlands far from suburban neighborhoods.

The section of Boulder County where Thursday's fire broke out is filled with subdivisions and stores, he said.

"It’s like the neighborhood you live in," he said. "It’s like the neighborhood that any of us live in. So 1,600 acres near a population center can be — and is, in this case — absolutely devastating.

Cuevana 3 | Todas las Peliculas de Cuevana

Melisa Nisa — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 09:47:00 GMT

Cuevana 3 | Todas las Peliculas de Cuevana

Ver y descargar Películas y Series en Latino Español Subtitulado e ingles los últimos estrenos en la mejor calidad HD sin cortes. Cuevana Online

En Cuevana3 puedes ver peliculas online. Ver peliculas online gratis. Ver peliculas en español latino. Ver peliculas gratis. Ver peliculas completas

Cuevana 3 - Ver las mejores Películas y Series Online Gratis en Español Latino sin cortes. Peliculas Gratis en calidad dvd HD

https://cuevana3.site

¿Cuántas películas has visto estas vacaciones? ¿50? ¿100? Si ahora dedicas tu tiempo de entretenimiento a recorrer una y otra vez los menús de tus servicios de streaming con la esperanza de encontrar algo nuevo que ver, te tenemos un regalo: ¡cine gratis! Conoce nuestra selección de los mejores sitios para ver películas gratis en internet; todas ellas opciones de calidad que te brindarán una experiencia satisfactoria, segura y 100 por ciento legal.

Nota: algunos de estos servicios no están disponibles fuera de Estados Unidos.

Conocido en el pasado como Grouper, este sitio de streaming gratuito ha experimentado tantos cambios de nombre como P. Diddy. Inicialmente controlada por Sony, ahora es una empresa conjunta entre Sony y Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSS). Esa asociación creó una nueva entidad llamada Crackle Plus, y se creía que también se convertiría en el nombre del servicio de transmisión. Sin embargo, una mirada al sitio y está claro que la simplicidad ganó: se llama Crackle.

Puedes ver IMDb TV en la web, dispositivos Amazon Fire y Apple TV, y a través de la aplicación Amazon Prime la puedes encontrar en muchos televisores, tabletas y teléfonos inteligentes. IMDb TV está disponible solo en Estados Unidos, aunque ya prepara su desembarco en Europa.

Pakistan calls on Muslim countries to help Afghanistan

Melisa Nisa — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:40:11 GMT

Please do not abandon Afghanistan. Please engage," Pakistan’s foreign minister said.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is rallying Muslim countries to help Afghanistan stave off an economic and humanitarian disaster while also cajoling the neighboring country’s new Taliban rulers to soften their image abroad.

Several foreign ministers from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation are meeting in Islamabad on Sunday to explore ways to aid Afghanistan while navigating the difficult political realities of its Taliban-run government, Pakistan’s top diplomat said Friday.

The new Taliban administration in Kabul has been sanctioned by the international community, reeling from the collapse of the Afghan military and the Western-backed government in the face of the insurgents’ takeover in mid-August.

The OIC meeting is an engagement that does not constitute an official recognition of the Taliban regime, said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

He said the message to the gathering on Sunday is: "Please do not abandon Afghanistan. Please engage. We are speaking for the people of Afghanistan. We’re not speaking of a particular group. We are talking about the people of Afghanistan."

Kabul’s only Covid hospital faces major supply issues amid multiple crises

Qureshi said major powers — including the United States, Russia, China and the European Union — will send their special representatives on Afghanistan to the one-day summit. Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also attend the conference.

Afghanistan is facing a looming economic meltdown and humanitarian catastrophe in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover. Billions of dollars’ worth of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the U.S., have been frozen and international funding to the country has ceased.

The world is also waiting before extending any formal recognition to the new rulers in Kabul, wary the Taliban could impose a similarly harsh regime as when they were in power 20 years ago — despite their assurances to the contrary.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Muttaqi said that Afghanistan’s new rulers were committed to the education of girls and women in the workforce.

Yet four months into Taliban rule, girls are not allowed to attend high school in most provinces and though women have returned to their jobs in much of the health care sector, many female civil servants have been barred from coming to work.

However, security has improved under the Taliban, with aid organizations able to travel to most parts of Afghanistan, including areas that for years were off-limits during the war, said a senior humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The World Health Organization and U.N. agencies have warned of the humanitarian crisis facing Afghanistan and its 38 million people. Hospitals are desperately short of medicines, up to 95 percent of all households face food shortages, the poverty level is soaring toward 90 percent and the afghani, the national currency, is in free fall.

Missing Utah college student Madelyn Allen found alive, 'covered in coal' in suspect's basement

Michigan teacher accused of making false terror threat with 'inappropriate' notes left at middle school

Pakistan has been at the forefront in pressing for world engagement in Afghanistan. Qureshi said Friday he has warned in talks with many foreign ministers — including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington — that a total collapse in Afghanistan will hurt efforts to fight terrorism and trigger a massive exodus from the country.

Refugees will become economic migrants, he added, meaning they would not want to stay in neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran, but will try to reach Europe and North America.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

Qureshi also warned that if Afghans are left without help, militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the regional Islamic State affiliate will regroup and flourish amid the chaos.

The OIC has leverage because of its nature as an Islamic organization and Qureshi expressed hope the summit will also be an opportunity for the world’s Muslim nations to press upon the Taliban the imperative of allowing girls to attend school at all levels and for women to return to their jobs in full.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson center, said OIC nations could do more, suggesting they work through their religious scholars and have them interact directly with the Taliban.

For now, it would be difficult for the West to engage with the Taliban, Kugelman said, adding that such an interaction would be tantamount to admitting defeat in the 20-year war.

For the Taliban, it would be the "final satisfaction of being able to engage ... from the standpoint of victor," he said.

"The Taliban defeated the West ... their powerful militaries and caused them to suffer through a chaotic and humiliating final withdrawal," he said. "For the West to turn around and bury the hatchet with the Taliban, this would amount to a legitimization of its defeat.

Striking Kellogg’s workers ratify tentative contract

Melisa Nisa — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:36:55 GMT

Employees have been on strike since early October and voted to ratify a tentative labor contract at the company’s four U.S. cereal plants.

NEW YORK — Kellogg’s employees who have been on strike since early October have voted to ratify a tentative labor contract at the company’s four U.S. cereal plants.

The contract covers approximately 1,400 workers represented by the union at plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Kellogg said Tuesday that the new contract provides immediate, across the board wage increases and enhanced benefits for all. It also provides an accelerated, defined path to top-tier wages, a major sticking point for workers, and benefits for transitional employees.

“We are pleased that we have reached an agreement that brings our cereal employees back to work,” CEO Steve Cahillane said in a statement.

The workers have been on strike since Oct. 5.

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said the contract is a win for workers.

“This agreement makes gains and does not include any concessions,” union President Anthony Shelton said in a prepared statement.

About 1,400 members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union voted on the new offer over the weekend. The offer includes cost-of-living adjustments and a $1.10 per hour raise for all employees.

Earlier this month, an overwhelming majority of workers voted down a five-year offer that would have provided 3% raises and cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal to most but not all of the workers. That offer also would have preserved employees’ current health benefits.

The workers have been on strike at plants in Battle Creek, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee. They make all of the company’s well-known brands of cereal, including Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes.

Kellogg’s said most workers at its cereal plants earned an average of $120,000 last year, though union members have said they work more than 80 hours a week to earn that, and those wages are only available to longtime workers. Under the two-tiered pay system the company uses, newer workers are paid less and receive fewer benefits.

That pay system has been a sticking point during the negotiations, and Kellogg’s offer didn’t change on that part of the contract. The company has said it will allow all workers with at least four years of experience move up to the higher legacy pay level as part of this contract. Union officials previously said that plan wouldn’t let other workers move up quickly enough. The company has also proposed eliminating the current 30% cap on the number of workers at each plant who receive the lower wages.

The new agreement would also preserve employees health care benefits.

The workers have been holding out for more partly because they believe the ongoing worker shortages across the country gave them leverage in the negotiations. And workers have said they deserve raises after keeping the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the strike Kellogg’s has been trying to keep its plants operating with salaried employees and outside workers, and the company said late last month that it planned to start hiring permanent replacements for the striking workers.

President Joe Biden sharply criticized Kellogg’s for threatening to permanently replace workers, saying that doing that would undermine the collective bargaining process.

Shares of Kellogg Co., based in Battle Creek, Michigan, fell more than 2% Tuesday.

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL35721208M/Assistir_Homem-Aranha_Sem_Volta_Para_Casa_Online_Dublado_HD_Grátis
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL35721231M/Assistir_Homem-Aranha_Sem_Volta_Para_Casa_(2021)_Dublado_Filme_Online_Grátis_em_portugues
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL35721235M/Assistir_Homem-Aranha_Sem_Volta_Para_Casa_(2021)_Filme_Completo_Dublado_Filmes_online_Grátis
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL35721237M/Assistir!_Homem-Aranha_Sem_Volta_Para_Casa_(2021)_Filme_Completo_Online_Dublado_Gratis
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL35721239M/Assistir_Homem-Aranha_Sem_Volta_Para_Casa_(2021)_Filme_completo_Dublado_online_Grátis

https://www.itrica.com/question/▷-assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-online-dublado/
https://www.itrica.com/question/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-dublado-filme-completo-online-gratis/
https://www.itrica.com/question/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-dublado-filme-completo-online-gratis-2/
https://www.itrica.com/question/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-dublado-online-gratis/
https://www.itrica.com/question/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-dublado-online-gratis-em-portuguese/

https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-online-filmes-gratis-em-portugues-3789316
https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-online-hd-3789321
https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-dublado-online-em-portugu-se
https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-em-portugues-3789331
https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/assistir-homem-aranha-sem-volta-para-casa-2021-filme-completo-3789341

https://open.firstory.me/story/ckxgcjb870d9u0801nl9uc8b6
https://open.firstory.me/story/ckxgcmzel0x3w0996h11qsrlb
https://open.firstory.me/story/ckxgcp5kl0e060801rs5g8i0s
https://open.firstory.me/story/ckxgcrdsoehds0925kor8tqho
https://open.firstory.me/story/ckxgct4gp5ed80840w0by2grd

https://ronemo.com/video/P3mpQlEN1gu/NFlw7nZyVm0pEg
https://ronemo.com/video/4jXMdCPYRK7/NFlw7nZyVm0MPK
https://ronemo.com/video/GyPHxhwjgDU/NFlw7nZyVm0HwD
https://ronemo.com/video/lbwngWsE3d4/NFlw7nZyVm0nsd

https://zenodo.org/communities/assistir-filmes-online-gratis/?page=1&size=20

https://www.vingle.net/posts/4177329
https://telegra.ph/Striking-Kelloggs-workers-ratify-tentative-contract-12-21
https://melisanisa.substack.com/p/striking-kelloggs-workers-ratify
https://melisanisa.hashnode.dev/striking-kelloggs-workers-ratify-tentative-contract
https://medium.com/@rezarahardiaan78/employees-have-been-on-strike-since-early-october-and-voted-to-ratify-a-tentative-labor-contract-2f4a102a428d

Spider-Man: No Way Home' collects Rs 138.55 cr in India

Melisa Nisa — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:10:59 GMT

Spider-Man: No Way Home' collects Rs 138.55 cr in India

Spiderman: No Way Home' in its four-day extended weekend has managed to collect Rs 138.55 crore. It had crossed the Rs 100 crore mark on Saturday.

Tom Holland-starrer Spiderman: No Way Home continues to rock the Indian box office. The superhero film in its four-day extended weekend has managed to collect Rs 138.55 crore.

In India, the much-awaited superhero action film had been released on December 16 across 3,264 screens in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions. The film had crossed the Rs 100 crore mark on Saturday.

Spiderman: No Way Home Total Box Office Collection

Box Office analyst Taran Adarsh noted on Twitter that Spiderman: No Way Home has set a new benchmark in India. The film has emerged as the highest-grossing film for Sony Pictures in India and has managed to surpassed the lifetime business of all previous Spiderman movies in India.

"'SPIDERMAN' SETS NEW BENCHMARKS IN INDIA… #SpiderMan: #NoWayHome emerges #SonyIndia's HIGHEST GROSSING FILM in #India… ALSO, it surpasses lifetime biz of #SpiderMan movies [Gross BOC] in just 4 days… 4-day extended weekend: ? 138.55 cr [Gross BOC]," wrote Adarsh on Twitter.

In another tweet, Adarsh provided the gross box office collection figures of previous Spiderman movies in India. Before Spiderman: No Way Home, Spiderman: Far From Home was the highest-grossing Spiderman movie in India at Rs 102 crore.

The Marvel-backed film, directed by Jon Watts, stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man, Zendaya as Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr Strange, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds and Jon Favreau as Harold "Happy Hogan".

It also stars actors like Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori and Marisa Tomei in pivotal roles.

Also Read: Spiderman No Way Home Box Office Day 2: Tom Holland's film faces competition from Pushpa; mints Rs 52.50 cr

Also Read: Pushpa box office collection Day 2: Allu Arjun's film mints Rs 100 crore worldwide

Omicron variant spreads across the U.S., dashing hopes of a more normal Christmas

Melisa Nisa — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 20:16:04 GMT

Omicron variant spreads across the U.S., dashing hopes of a more normal Christmas

President Joe Biden plans to address the nation Tuesday amid rising cases — and anxiety.

The coronavirus is resurgent.

The omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the United States, shattering hopes of a return to relative normalcy in the final days of the year and harkening back to the anxiety of the early months of the Covid-19 crisis.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the variant is "just raging through the world."

The national mood seemed to shift dramatically in the span of a few days. In cities and towns across the U.S., cases are rising, employers are postponing return-to-office plans, and school systems are weighing the costs of closing their doors and moving back to remote classes.

The lines for Covid tests seem to be growing longer by the day as many scramble to book booster shot appointments or cancel Christmas travel plans.

Full Fauci Interview: Omicron variant is 'just raging through the world'
DEC. 19, 202113:10
And yet, as Fauci said Sunday morning, "we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated.”

Here are significant developments over the last few days:

President Joe Biden plans to address the nation Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted. He will be "issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated," she said.
Covid cases are rising sharply across half the U.S., particularly in the Northeast. New York has seen a 76 percent increase in the last two weeks, according to data compiled by NBC News. Connecticut and Maine are dealing with dramatic increases, too.
The seven-day average of Covid cases reached 133,243 as of Sunday — the first time the national average climbed above 130,000 since late September.
Eight states set hospitalization records Sunday, including Ohio and Wisconsin, according to an NBC News analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., have tested positive for Covid. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan tweeted Monday that he received a positive rapid test.
Moderna announced Monday that its Covid booster shot appears to provide protection against the new variant, adding that it would continue to develop an omicron-specific booster.
Companies are revising return-to-office guidance. Apple said last week it was indefinitely postponing its plan for employees to return to offices. CNN said over the weekend it would close its offices to nonessential workers.
Big sports leagues are rethinking their calendars. The NBA and the NHL postponed several games.
Broadway shows such as "Moulin Rouge!" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" are nixing performances, while the Radio City Rockettes are hanging up their shoes for the holiday season. The actor Paul Rudd hosted "Saturday Night Live" without a studio audience.
The sharp rise in cases combined with mounting uncertainty prompted some experts to criticize federal officials for being slow to respond to the variant.

Recommended

DATA GRAPHICS
Map: See if the CDC recommends indoor mask use in your county

DATA GRAPHICS
Tracking coronavirus case surges in the United States
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, questioned why Biden was waiting until Tuesday to address the nation.

"We can’t wait 48 hours to hear what his plan may be and then react to it," he wrote Sunday in his newsletter, Inside Medicine. "In omicron time, Tuesday is millennia from now."

Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, also criticized Biden for not doing more last week. Hanage called out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Twitter for the agency's lack of messaging and guidance on omicron.

"The CDC is full of amazing people, but the silence now is not just deafening, it’s frightening," he tweeted.

‘National priority’: Anand Mahindra shares solution to tackle stubble burning in Delhi’s neighbouring states

Melisa Nisa — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 20:38:59 GMT

Biden to deliver Tuesday speech on omicron variant as Covid cases rise
The president is expected to go beyond his already unveiled “Winter Plan” with additional steps to help communities in need, a White House official told NBC News.

President Joe Biden will deliver a speech on Tuesday addressing the omicron variant, where he will unveil new steps the administration is taking to help communities in need of assistance, a White House official told NBC News on Saturday.

Biden is expected to go beyond his already unveiled "Winter Plan" with additional measures while "issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated," the official said.

The news comes amid a rise in Covid-19 cases and pleas from federal health officials to get vaccinated.

POLITICS NEWS
Harris defends Biden over stalled social spending bill in interview with Charlamagne

Biden visits graves of first wife, infant daughter on 49th anniversary of car crash
Aides said the president's administration is “prepared for the rising case levels” and that Biden intends to explain how his team “will respond to this challenge," the official said.

Biden has been receiving additional Covid briefings from his medical experts. Aides say he has told his team the message to the American public must be direct because of concerns that the omicron's more transmissible variant is expected to spread quickly, putting unvaccinated people at a higher risk while also posing a threat to those who have some level of inoculation.

Welcome to the ‘never’ normal world we live in’: Here’s how India Inc. reacted to the Omicron COVID-19 variant
Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO and Managing Director Uday Kotak has said that the Omicron will prompt people, markets and policymakers globally to “shoot from the hip in crisis management”.

Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO and Managing Director Uday Kotak has said that the latest COVID-19 variant—Omicron will prompt people, markets and policymakers globally to “shoot from the hip in crisis management” sans statistics to support their measures. He also welcomed the netizens to the “‘never’ normal world we live in”.

Omicron variant scare today, something else tomorrow. People, markets and policy makers worldwide will shoot from the hip in crisis management without data. Welcome to the ‘never’ normal world we live in,” Kotak tweeted.

Kotak was, however, not the only one to tweet about the Omicron variant. Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also noted that the Omicron variant is supposed to be milder than Delta and wondered whether 7-day home quarantine for visitors from ‘at-risk’ nations were “too drastic” for travellers with negative RT-PCR test and having full vaccination.

Crypto exchanges keep getting hacked, and there's little anyone can do

Melisa Nisa — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 21:36:48 GMT

Trump White House made 'deliberate efforts' to undermine Covid response, report says

The White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance from the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials, the report found.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes.

The report, prepared by the House select subcommittee investigating the nation’s Covid response, says the White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance by the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials in order to promote then-President Donald Trump's political agenda.

In August of last year, for example, Trump hosted a White House meeting with people who promoted a herd immunity strategy pushed by White House special adviser Dr. Scott Atlas. The subcommittee obtained an email sent ahead of that meeting in which Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Covid response coordinator, told the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short, that it was “a fringe group without grounding in epidemics, public health or on the ground common sense experience.” Birx also said in the email that she could “go out of town or whatever gives the WH cover” on the day of the meeting.

A few months later in October, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins called for “a quick and devastating published take down” of the herd immunity strategy, according to emails obtained and released by the subcommittee.

In an interview with the subcommittee, Birx said when she arrived to the White House in March 2020 — more than a month after the U.S. declared a public health emergency — she learned that federal officials had not yet contacted some of the largest U.S. companies that could supply Covid testing.

Birx also told the panel that Atlas and other Trump officials “purposely weakened CDC’s coronavirus testing guidance in August 2020 to obscure how rapidly the virus was spreading across the country,” the report said. The altered guidance recommended that asymptomatic people didn’t need to get tested, advice that was "contrary to consensus science-based recommendations," it said, adding, "Dr. Birx stated that these changes were made specifically to reduce the amount of testing being conducted.

Altas did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.

The subcommittee also found in its investigation that the Trump White House blocked requests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public briefings for more than three months. That move followed a late-February 2020 briefing in which a top CDC official "accurately warned the public about the risks posed by the coronavirus," it said.

Another CDC official told the panel that the agency asked to hold a briefing in April 2020 on a recommendation to wear cloth face coverings and present evidence of pediatric cases and deaths from Covid, but the Trump White House refused.

Jailed American in Venezuela tells family he's in 'complete shock' after visit from Biden official
CDC officials also stated media requests to interview them were denied during that period, the subcommittee report said.

Documents obtained by the committee also show that Trump political appointees tried to pressure the Food and Drug Administration to authorize ineffective Covid treatments the president was pushing, like hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career scientists, the report said.

In addition, Dr. Steven Hatfill, an adviser to former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, “may have declined leads to purchase supplies like N95 masks in the spring 2020 solely because the products were not manufactured in the United States," the subcommittee said.

In a statement provided to NBC on Friday, Hatfill said that the administration began sourcing personal protective equipment in early 2020. He said "the most logical and efficient choice was to seek U.S.-based manufacturers' help."

"At the time, profiteers were peddling defective and fraudulent PPE at inflated prices directly to the public," he said. "Even states such as California and New Mexico fell prey to these schemes, but we had no time to waste at the federal level. Even the shortest delay could cost thousands of lives. That was a risk we were not willing to take. Our choice to buy American goods saved lives and the United States taxpayer's money."

Dr. Jay Butler, a senior CDC official who helped supervise the agency’s coronavirus response during the spring of 2020, told the subcommittee in an interview that the Trump administration published guidance for faith communities in May of last year that “softened some very important public health recommendations,” such as removing all references to face coverings, a suggestion to suspend choirs, and language related to virtual services. Butler told the panel that “the concerns he had about Americans getting sick and potentially dying because they relied on this watered-down guidance ‘will haunt me for some time,’” the report said.

The revelations in the panel's report come as Covid cases surge across the country as the U.S. battles the new omicron and the delta variants.

Antarctic ice shelf could crack, raise seas by feet within decade, scientists warn

Melisa Nisa — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 16:52:12 GMT

As parents protest critical race theory, students fight racist behavior at school
Heated local debates over critical race theory are feeding into the bullying and harassment of students of color at school, making it harder to stop, parents and experts say.
During the first week of October, Brooklyn Edwards was in the school gymnasium during her lunch period when she said a classmate took a piece of cotton out of his pocket, tossed it on the ground and told her to pick it.

Brooklyn, 15, described the incident a month later at the Johnston County, North Carolina, school board meeting. She said she’d dealt with racist bullying frequently as a Black student at Princeton Middle/High School, in a majority-white small town southeast of Raleigh. Classmates called her racial slurs, she said, including in front of teachers who failed to react. One classmate suggested she kill herself, so she might be reborn as a white girl, Brooklyn said.

“It’s bad enough we have to deal with racism in the real world. We shouldn’t have to deal with it in school,” she told the school board, pleading with them to investigate racial harassment in the district. “I’m speaking up for the ones that are too scared to speak up for themselves.”

Critical Race Theory: What do the kids think?
SEPT. 1, 202103:32
After sharing her experiences at the board meeting, “I felt relieved and glad they finally knew what was going on,” Brooklyn said in a recent interview, “but I had a lot of doubt they were going to do anything.”

Kaiulani Moses, Brooklyn’s mother, said it was disheartening to see the Johnston County school board focused on a different issue this fall: ensuring that critical race theory, an academic concept that examines how racism is perpetuated through policies and institutions, is not taught in schools. She believes that sent the wrong message to students who bullied their classmates and the teachers and administrators tasked with ensuring safety.

Image: Protesters talk before the start of a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021.
Protesters talk before the start of a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images file
“It has made these children and some personnel and administrators at this school feel protected,” Moses said. The district is one of hundreds nationwide where some parents and conservative activists demanded that schools block classroom discussions of “white privilege,” cut back on equity training for teachers and stop hiring diversity consultants. The Johnston County Board of Commissioners promised in June to release $7.9 million in school funding if the district banned critical race theory, which administrators said schools did not teach.

In response, the school board enacted a rule in July barring staff members from doing anything to “create division” in the community. Then, in October, the board passed a policy that limits how teachers can talk about race and requires educators to present historical American figures as “innovators and heroes to our culture.”

“It’s all about politics, and our children are having to pay for it.”

KAIULANI MOSES, MOTHER IN NORTH CAROLINA

After Brooklyn spoke at the board meeting, she said she continued to receive social media messages from classmates calling her racial slurs. Her mother transferred her to a different school in October.

“I shouldn’t have to relocate my children because they refuse to fix this problem,” Moses said. “It’s all about politics, and our children are having to pay for it.”

Moses said she met with the superintendent this month, after weeks of requesting to speak to him, and he said he would look into the harassment. The superintendent declined an interview request. The school district said in a statement that administrators began investigating Brooklyn’s claims in early October but did not share the outcome of that investigation. The statement said no other student has reported current incidents of racism at Princeton Middle/High School.

“Our school board members and school administration will not tolerate racist bullying and harassment of our students,” said Caitlin Furr, a district spokeswoman. “We will continue to investigate reports that are brought to us and to take other steps to make sure our students have a positive school experience.”

This fall, teens in more than a dozen states have staged protests and spoken before school boards about racist bullying and harassment from their peers — sounding alarms over discrimination in some of the same districts and states targeted by conservative activists calling for a ban on anti-racism lessons.

Students have walked out of class over racist remarks by classmates in Connecticut and Massachusetts, racist social media posts by teens in Minnesota and Washington, graffiti with racial slurs found in bathrooms at schools in Michigan and Missouri, and threats against students of color in New York and Ohio.

David Hinojosa, an attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law who spearheads the nonprofit organization’s work on equal educational opportunities, is concerned that the battles are imperiling efforts to achieve racial and gender equity in schools. He cited the widespread actions opposing diversity efforts “that have proliferated across the country,” beginning with former President Donald Trump’s anti-CRT executive order last year and continuing through state efforts to ban books and limit how history is taught.

“When we say it’s not OK to talk about this truthful history,” he said, “there’s going to be a bleedover effect into the behaviors of school teachers, the behaviors of school leaders and the behavior of students.”

The wave of student activism in recent months, he and two other civil rights experts said, shows precisely why schools cannot afford to avoid the topics of race and discrimination.

“What the students are shining a light on is the necessity and urgency of talking honestly about race and reckoning honestly with racism,” said Matthew Delmont, a Dartmouth College history professor who’s studied the civil rights movement. “These student protests are making it painfully clear these are issues schools need to fully address as part of the curriculum.”

‘It is the system itself’
The uprising after George Floyd’s murder last year spurred many educators to incorporate anti-racism lessons. Districts promised to reform their discipline practices, reduce achievement gaps and combat hateful incidents, which had been rising in recent years before the nationwide protests.

The most recent federal data shows the number of schools where at least one racial hate crime occurred more than doubled from 543 in 2016 to 1,276 in 2018. In a report issued last month, the Government Accountability Office estimated that about 1 in 4 students ages 12 to 18 are exposed to racial, homophobic and antisemitic slurs and anti-immigrant rhetoric at school.

“It’s not just the kids — it is the system itself,” said Ava Farah, 15, who is Arab and Latina and helped organize a walkout last month at Bloomfield Hills High School, near Detroit, after racist graffiti was found in campus bathrooms. “The system allows these kids to get away with it, and the government and our schools have to do something to try and take apart that system.”

A representative for the Bloomfield Hills district said administrators held multiple forums in recent weeks to discuss racism, and they are developing an action plan to address incidents of hate and bias in the schools, which will include additional diversity training for staff and students. The graffiti is being investigated by law enforcement with assistance from the state’s assistant attorney general who oversees hate crimes.

Darren Hutchinson, the John Lewis Chair for Civil Rights and Social Justice at Emory University’s law school, said the experiences described by many of the student protesters are not only disheartening, but they raise concerns that school districts may be violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination.

“What they’re experiencing is very real. If students are using the N-word and teachers aren’t responding to that, then the teachers are being complicit in racism, and that’s a very important matter to address,” Hutchinson said. “It sounds like some of those schools — based on the reports I’ve read — are turning a blind eye to the racial harassment students are experiencing.”

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is investigating 188 school districts over allegations that they have mishandled racial harassment in violation of Title VI, up from 178 a year ago.

Pushing back against diversity programs
The pushback over diversity and inclusion initiatives ramped up this year, with some parents and conservative activists calling the programs too political and inappropriate for school settings. They raised concerns about state standards on ethnic studies curricula, teachers using lesson plans that labeled certain identities as “oppressive” and staff training materials that discussed forms of white supremacy.

Parents and conservative activists have singled out some administrators and teachers at school board meetings and online, accusing them of using assignments and books to indoctrinate students on racial issues. Some educators have been fired or pushed to resign.

Recommended

WORLD
Remaining missionaries kidnapped in Haiti by gang released

WORLD
He rescued her as a cub, Sirga the lioness repays him with hugs
The politically charged atmosphere has prompted concerns among civil rights advocates that some school staff members will be reluctant to take a strong stand on issues involving race.

“White students don’t want to be called oppressors,” Hutchinson said, “but students of color don’t want to be oppressed, and that’s what you’re seeing with these protests.”

In Pennsylvania, students staged multiple demonstrations this fall against a ban imposed by the Central York school board on an anti-racist reading list that a group of students, parents and educators had created last fall as an optional resource for anyone looking to learn more about discrimination.

Students marched, wrote newspaper op-eds and used a petition and an Instagram campaign, successfully pressuring the school board into voting unanimously to reverse the ban. But to student organizers like Edha Gupta, a senior at Central York High School, damage had already been done.

“It is evident to me that diversity and the voices of color in this district do not matter,” Gupta, 17, said at a September board meeting. “I don’t feel welcome here — not anymore.”

Students protesting against racial harassment have been met with mixed responses from administrators. In Tigard, Oregon, a superintendent joined a walkout, while in Rome, Georgia, where state education officials passed a resolution this year calling for limits on what is taught in schools about racial issues or current events, students were suspended for leading a walkout in response to classmates waving a Confederate flag.

Hinojosa worries about the impact on students if they aren’t supported in their fight for an educational experience that’s free of harassment and discrimination.

“We’re putting all of that at risk because CRT has been used as a dog whistle to mean so many different things,” he said.

‘Racism thrives in our hallway’
In Iowa, one of eight states that enacted laws to ban critical race theory or limit how educators can talk about race, a top Republican lawmaker said Nov. 18 that he will propose legislation to ensure school staff members face criminal prosecution if they share books like “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, which he considers obscene.

That same week, the Black Student Union at West High School in Iowa City organized multiple protests and spoke at school board meetings after social media posts circulated showing white classmates using a racial slur, wearing blackface and threatening to stab Black students in the eyes, according to students and Little Village magazine.

Image: Students show support at a protest against racial discrimination in Iowa public schools in Iowa City on Nov. 19, 2021.
Students show support at a protest against racial discrimination in Iowa public schools in Iowa City on Nov. 19, 2021.Jerod Ringwald / The Daily Iowan
Iowa City rolled out a plan one year ago to increase staff training on issues like microaggressions and white supremacy, evaluate teachers on how well they promote equity and tackle disproportionate rates of suspension for Black students. A national conservative activist group, Parents Defending Education, slammed the initiatives, labeling them as teaching critical race theory and “promoting activism.”

“How are we supposed to live in an environment that continuously disrespects us?”

MARIA KAZEMBE, IOWA CITY STUDENT

But students of color in Iowa City said these efforts have not done enough to change campus culture. At the protests last month, students described racist encounters with classmates. A Muslim girl said students had yanked her hijab off in the hallway, while a Black student said she had to drop advanced classes to get away from students who called her racial slurs.

“How are we supposed to live in an environment that continuously disrespects us?” asked Maria Kazembe, 18, co-founder of the school’s Black Student Union.

Matthew Degner, the Iowa City schools superintendent, said the students’ experiences were concerning.

“I don’t think there’s anything worse than when you hear a story from a student that’s been subjected to something like that,” he said. “And it causes you to look in the mirror and think, where do we fall in responsibility for that?”

Degner said he believes the district has a solid multiyear plan to address equity and racism, but he acknowledged that students of color feel otherwise.

“If that was sufficient, then we wouldn’t be hearing some of these stories and kids wouldn’t be experiencing this,” he said.

After speaking at school board meetings about racism, Nisreen Elgaali, 17, co-president of the Black Student Union, said she received death threats online, and someone submitted an anonymous tip to the school falsely claiming that the group was planning another protest where students would carry knives and guns.

“The kind of the backlash we’ve been receiving is completely disturbing,” Elgaali said, “but we’re honestly not surprised because the animosity has always been there.”

Degner said the district will deploy two lesson plans for students on the impact of racial bias in the coming weeks.

But Black Student Union members want the district to take a zero tolerance approach to incidents of racism, saying they don’t think much will change until it’s clear that there are severe consequences for students who commit acts of hate.

“Racism thrives in our hallway, and people think that if they do these things that they’re going to be OK, but they shouldn’t be OK — like, we’re not OK after going through all of this,” Kazembe said. “We’re just students trying to go to school, and a lot of us are scared and feel unheard.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be extradited to the U.S. after U.K. ruling

Melisa Nisa — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 15:43:25 GMT

Supreme Court says challenge to Texas' ban on abortion can proceed, allows law to remain in effect for now

The court didn't rule on the merits of the law, but rather on whether the abortion providers' lawsuit can move forward.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that abortion providers in Texas can go ahead with their lawsuit challenging S.B. 8, the nation's most restrictive abortion law.

But the court declined to block enforcement of the law while the court battles continue, so the law remains in effect.

The ruling was a blow to Texas, which had sought to make the law nearly impossible to challenge in federal court. The state argued that abortion providers could not contest the law in advance but had to wait until they were sued for violating it.

Thursday's ruling was only a partial victory for abortion providers, however. The court ruled that the federal government cannot pursue a separate lawsuit filed by the Biden Justice Department that also challenged the law. It also narrowed the field of possible defendants that can be sued in any lawsuits that go forward.

The justices did not decide whether the Texas law violates the Constitution. That issue was not presented in the case, but the decision clears the way for the issue to be litigated in the state. Because the law clearly violates existing Supreme Court abortion precedents, the challenges are likely to prevail.

In a separate case argued Dec. 1, the court is considering whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, which could allow individual states to decide whether abortion will be legal. That case involves a challenge to a Mississippi law, now on hold, that would ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The Texas law bans abortion after doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat, about six weeks into a pregnancy. But because past Supreme Court rulings have said states cannot ban abortion before the age of fetal viability, around 24 weeks, Texas officials could not enforce the ban themselves.

Recommended

MEET THE PRESS
Bob Dole called the Senate 'bent,' but seven years later it's closer to being broken

JOE BIDEN
The very low public profile of Biden’s health secretary
The Texas law instead delegates enforcement to any person, anywhere, who can sue any doctor performing an abortion or anyone who aids in the procedure. Those suing can collect at least $10,000, potentially subjecting abortion providers to the prospect of repeated and ruinous lawsuits.

Texas argued that the law's opponents had no legal authority to sue the state, because the S.B. 8 does not give state officials any role in enforcing the restriction.

"Federal courts don't enjoin laws, they enjoin officials who enforce the laws," the state's solicitor general said.

But the law's challengers, abortion providers in the state, sought to sue Texas judges and court clerks, describing them as "unquestionably connected to the enforcement of this new law; without them, the civil suits targeting the right to abortion could not be litigated, or even commenced."

The Supreme Court took up the Texas cases after twice refusing to block enforcement of the law while the two challenges worked their way through the lower courts. As a result, the number of abortions in the state dropped dramatically. Some clinics stopped providing abortions services, forcing women seeking the procedure to travel outside the state.

Omicron vs. T cells: Why scientists are banking on the immune system's 'memory'

Melisa Nisa — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:52:16 GMT

YouTube banned 'ghost gun' videos. They're still up.

Three years after YouTube prohibited “ghost gun” assembly videos, the site still hosts dozens of the videos, totaling several million views.

Authorities investigating a man suspected of trafficking “ghost guns” in September tailed a white GMC truck to a Home Depot parking lot in New Jersey, closing in as he left the store.

Inside his truck, investigators found more than a dozen “ghost gun” kits, which authorities say can be built into functioning, untraceable firearms within hours — or even minutes.

The man, William R. Pillus, 23, whose attorney declined to comment, is accused of planning to build the kits into 9 mm handguns and sell at least some of them, according to a state indictment in New Jersey. In his basement apartment in Lincoln Park, authorities found an AR-style “ghost” rifle and handwritten instructions for how to build handguns.

The source of Pillus’ gun-building knowledge, authorities allege: YouTube.

The internet has made the proliferation of homemade weapons a vexing problem for law enforcement officials across the country, who have linked them to mass shootings, attacks on police and drug and gang killings in recent years.

More than three years after YouTube tightened its gun content restrictions, an NBC News review found dozens of videos, with more than 4.6 million combined views, showing how to assemble “ghost guns,” which remain largely unregulated in most states and are nearly impossible to trace because they lack serial numbers.

NBC News sent links to six videos — which combined accounted for more than 1.2 million hits — to YouTube’s parent company, Google, seeking comment on how it enforces its firearms policy. YouTube removed the videos within hours and said users have to comply with guidelines prohibiting videos that show how to make firearms.

Do You Speak English? Work a USA job from home in Indonesia

An Oakland, Calif., police service technician points to an extendable stock on an AR-style rifle at a display of ghost guns in April.Stephen Lam / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images, file

But dozens of similar videos remain on the site — some on the same channels as the ones YouTube took down. The videos were posted from 2013 to 2021, and they have drawn more than 1,000 views to more than half a million.

The availability of videos on YouTube showing how to build guns alarmed some former law enforcement officials and gun control advocates, who called for the company to more proactively police its platforms.

“What does it say about your corporate moral leadership if you cannot live up to your own corporate ideals?” said MSNBC analyst Jim Cavanaugh, a former special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF. “It’s really kind of sad, if you think about it.”

YouTube said in a statement that, with more than 500 hours of content being uploaded to the site every minute, it largely relies on “advanced machine learning” and reports from users to flag videos that may violate its policies. Employees then review the videos to determine whether they should be removed.

In 2019, The Trace, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on gun violence, found that YouTube hosted videos about how to build 3D-printed guns that violated its policies. The Trace said that it flagged several videos through YouTube’s mechanism for reporting policy violations but that the company removed the offending videos only after The Trace contacted it directly.

“It’s surprising to me that YouTube wouldn’t be looking at this more closely and enforcing a rule that they themselves set,” said Jim Burch, the president of the National Police Foundation, a nonpartisan law enforcement think tank.

“They can’t possibly be asleep at the wheel on this,” he added.

Ghost guns are particularly problematic for law enforcement agencies because they are sold in parts, typically including an unfinished frame, a separate trigger mechanism and a barrel. For that reason, they aren’t technically considered firearms under federal law. That means buyers can bypass background checks, giving criminals who are banned from owning firearms access to guns. And the parts are sold without serial numbers, which the federal government uses to track weapons involved in crimes, making the handmade guns almost impossible to trace.

The kits often require only minor modifications — drilling holes and sanding parts — to make them functioning firearms. As part of an investigation into Polymer80, a leading manufacturer of the kits, federal agents and a confidential informant used YouTube videos to learn how to assemble them. The informant beat the agent’s time, building a functioning firearm in just 21 minutes.

“These have become the weapon of choice for criminals,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro warned in October after the arrest of Pillus, who faces five counts in connection with firearm charges, according to a New Jersey indictment unsealed in October.

Shapiro pointed to Pillus’ case as evidence that better federal regulation is urgently needed, saying the number of ghost guns involved in crimes has exploded in his state. The Philadelphia Police Department recovered 389 in the first eight months of 2021 — up from just 95 in all of 2019.

National data on ghost guns are incomplete, at best. ATF estimates that police recovered 10,000 privately made firearms in 2019. In some cities, the numbers are rising quickly. In New York City, the number seized by police jumped from 48 in 2019 to about 200 from the start of this year through mid-November.

In response, the Biden administration recently proposed a federal rule that would regulate the sale of homemade gun kits like all other firearms, requiring buyers to pass background checks and forcing manufacturers to add serial numbers to the parts. But the rule is still pending.

Gunfire reported at Cancun beach after shooters arrive on jet skis, police say

In the meantime, some states and cities — including New Jersey and Los Angeles — have passed their own laws banning ghost guns or requiring buyers to register them once they’re built.

But the laws aren’t focused on how people learn to build guns, leaving it up to online platforms to police themselves.

Garen Wintemute, the head of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, said videos showing how to build guns facilitate their production and should be a wake-up call for YouTube and other platforms to do a better job policing content.

“What YouTube and others need to consider is what complicity and what accountability do they face if they continue to allow that information to be provided, given the purposes for which it’s being put out,” Wintemute said.

But Second Amendment supporters say YouTube already aggressively enforces its rules and charge that it has gone too far in restricting firearm content. Some former YouTube users have moved to more niche alternative sites, such as Odysee or GunStreamer.

“YouTube’s restrictions are keeping gun owners, especially the more than 11 million first-time gun buyers over the past two years, from accessing information that will help to teach safe and responsible firearm ownership and storage,” said Mark Oliva, the director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the firearms industry.

Oliva said the foundation “supports the use of videos that demonstrate the lawful and safe use of firearms, including those firearms that are built in the home by those within their lawful right to possess firearms.”

“P80 Ralph,” who declined to provide his full name, runs a YouTube channel dedicated to making untraceable guns at home. In a video interview set up through the email account attached to his YouTube channel, Ralph said his curiosity was piqued when a co-worker showed him a picture of an AR-style rifle he’d built. He wondered, “How the hell do you build a gun?”

Image: Ghost guns that were secured by the DC Metropolitan Police Department during a press conference on Feb. 28, 2021. Each gun that was displayed during the presser was used during a crime.
The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department displayed ghost guns used in crimes at a news conference in February.Astrid Riecken / The Washington Post via Getty Images, file
“So I went on YouTube. Tons of videos showing how to do it,” he said. “And I realized that it was a hobby. People do this for fun.”

At first, Ralph said, he worried that people might do something bad with guns they had built after watching his videos. But he said he believes the Constitution gives people a right to bear arms — not just for hunting or self-defense, but also “to stand up against a tyrannical government.”

“Whoever is in charge of the whole thing here, this United States, they don’t want the knowledge out there,” he said. “They don’t want people to have firearms. They want the control. They want to be able to have power over everyone.”

One of Ralph’s videos was removed from YouTube after NBC News’ inquiry. He said he has been warned in the past and had other videos taken down. The platform also demonetized most of his content — even videos that aren’t about guns, he said.

But some gun control advocates insist that YouTube doesn’t go far enough. On Wednesday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety sent a letter calling on YouTube to better enforce its community guidelines.

“While law enforcement agencies like the FBI and ATF are working to curb this problem, it is imperative that YouTube work harder and smarter to monitor and regulate ghost-gun-related content,” the letter said. (YouTube didn’t immediately comment on the letter.)

Vincent Gazzani was one of several people shot by a man wielding a ghost gun in San Diego on April 22. Hit in the arm and chest, he nearly died. He has become an advocate for banning ghost guns, volunteering for the gun control groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action.

Gazzani, 27, who lives in New Jersey, said he’d like the YouTube videos to be taken down. Doing so wouldn’t curb the spread of ghost guns, he said, but it might make it less likely that someone with bad intentions would be inspired to build one.

“Marketing ghost guns is just as bad as selling them,” he said.

Australia joins U.S. in diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

Melisa Nisa — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 12:29:09 GMT

Pfizer says booster dose of vaccine protects against omicron variant

Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine may not provide sufficient antibodies against the new variant, the company said.

A booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine appears to provide strong protection against the omicron variant, the companies announced Wednesday.

They said lab study results show a third dose of their vaccine provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to omicron, comparable to two doses against the original coronavirus and other variants that have emerged.

Blood samples from those who received only the primary series of the vaccine, on average, did see a 25-fold drop in antibodies against the new variant. That may indicate that two doses of the vaccine may not be sufficient to protect against infection with omicron, the companies said.

As the highly mutated omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, spreads around the globe, scientists are racing to determine how the available vaccines will work against it.

Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

The companies said the results are preliminary. The findings were detailed in a press release, and the full data have not yet been made available for other scientists to scrutinize.

But lab studies are only one piece of the puzzle. Other data are also needed to determine whether a new vaccine is needed. Scientists need to understand transmissible the omicron variant is (early indications suggest it's more contagious than the delta variant) as well as how sick it makes people (early data suggests the illness caused by the variant is milder).

The results from Pfizer-BioNTech are the first announced by vaccine makers.

According to the news release, blood samples were tested from people who had received either two or three doses of the vaccine. The samples were collected three weeks after the second dose or one month after the booster.

Tuesday, a South Africa research institute also released lab results on how the Pfizer vaccine fared against omicron, showing about a fortyfold reduction in vaccine-induced antibodies that could neutralize the new variant. That study didn't look at booster shots, however.

On Nov. 25, the vaccine companies started to develop an omicron-specific vaccine. First batches of the vaccine can be produced and ready for delivery in about 100 days, depending on authorization from federal regulators, Pfizer has said.

Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are expected to release lab results from the omicron variant in the coming days. Academic research institutions are also looking into how well the vaccine works against omicron.

Biden to warn Putin of 'very real costs' should Russia take military action against Ukraine

Melisa Nisa — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:56:55 GMT

How the rise of electric cars endangers the ‘last frontier’ of the Philippines
A mine that supplies nickel for the batteries that power electric vehicles is on the verge of a major expansion into a pristine rainforest.

This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

PALAWAN, Philippines – Jeminda Bartolome spends her days at the foot of a lush mountain range tending to her rice paddies. A mother of six, she leads a group of farmers and members of the Indigenous Palawan tribe who believe the crop is endowed with a human soul.

“That,” she said on a recent afternoon pointing toward her farmland, “is our source of livelihood.”

Bartolome, 56, lives in one of the most biodiverse places on earth, a stunning island that draws legions of tourists to its crystal blue waters and pristine nature reserves. But these days, her livelihood, and the ancient rainforest system it depends on, are increasingly under threat.

Jeminda Bartolome. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

A nickel mine stretching nearly 4 square miles scars the forest above Bartolome’s farmland. The mine, Rio Tuba, plays a vital role in satisfying the global demand for a mineral more coveted than ever due in part to the explosion of the electric car industry.

The raw nickel dug out of the ground here ends up in the lithium batteries of plug-in vehicles manufactured by Tesla, Toyota and other automakers, according to an NBC News review of company filings and shipping records.

With the demand for nickel skyrocketing, the Rio Tuba mine is now on the brink of expanding deeper into the rainforest, adding almost 10 square miles to its current footprint. Local environmentalists fear that it will wipe out the forest’s fragile ecosystem and increase toxic runoff into the rivers that flow past the farmland down below, jeopardizing the crops.

“What is at stake there is the life and survival of the people in the communities,” said Grizelda Mayo-Anda, an environmental lawyer and professor in Palawan.

Electric cars are hailed as a climate-friendly alternative to the gas-guzzling vehicles that have long ruled America’s roads. Experts agree that they create a lower carbon footprint than traditional cars.

But the controversy over the planned mine expansion highlights an often overlooked reality: manufacturing electric cars, even when done responsibly, still takes a toll on the environment.

The move to expand the mine comes as the destruction of the world’s rainforests, which play a crucial role in protecting wildlife and slowing climate change, is accelerating.

With the demand for nickel expected to grow to at least 10 times what it is now by 2030, experts say companies will have no choice but to expand their mining operations, impacting more people like Bartolome and more places like the island paradise of Palawan.

The village of Taratak. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

Located between the South China and the Sulu seas, Palawan is known as the last frontier of the Philippines.

The 270-mile-long island is part of the Man and Biosphere Reserve program of UNESCO and serves as the home of 105 threatened species of flora and fauna.

On the southern tip of the island, surrounded by dense tropical rainforest, sits the dusty mining town of Bataraza.

Trucks crisscross the area carrying nickel ore from the mine site to a nearby processing center and then onto the port at Rio Tuba Bay, where it leaves Palawan’s shores on a long journey that ends in electric cars lined up on showroom floors in the United States, Europe and Asia.

NBC News reviewed corporate reports from the Japanese mining giant Sumitomo Metal Mining to track the processed nickel through refineries in Japan, where it is converted into nickel cobalt aluminum oxide cathode material for Panasonic’s lithium ion batteries.

Sumitomo Metal Mining holds a roughly 25 percent stake in the company that owns the Rio Tuba mine – Nickel Asia, which is based in the Philippines.

The mine has an outsize presence in Bataraza. One of its main high schools, supermarkets and municipal buildings all carry the name Rio Tuba, a testament company officials say to the development the mine brought to the area.

“The town of Bataraza before mining started was a fourth-class municipality, which in the Philippine classifications is the poorest of the poor,” Jose Baylon, a spokesman for Nickel Asia, said.

Macadam Highway is Rio Tuba's link to the global supply chain. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

The town is now considered a first-class municipality, he said, a designation that puts it just below a city. Among the town’s major upgrades: a water system that Nickel Asia paid for at the request of government officials.

“It is made possible because of the income generated by the mining,” Baylon said.

The mine began operations in the mid-1970s after the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. secured the permission of the Philippines government. At the time, the nickel ore pulled out of the earth was mainly used in the production of stainless steel.

The operation took on new prominence after the turn of the century with the rise of electric cars. Nickel is a key component in the lithium batteries that power the vehicles, and there’s only one way to get it: digging up the earth.

“Nickel is our biggest concern for scaling lithium-ion cell production,” Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted earlier this year.

NBC Nightly News examines how growing demand for electric vehicles puts rainforests at risk.

Advances in clean energy coincided with new technology that allowed companies like Nickel Asia to extract nickel from a different type of ore. A process called high pressure acid leaching made it possible to extract nickel from low-grade laterite ore.

But the technique comes at a price: because the materials lie at the surface, as opposed to deep underground, miners must clear out a wider swath of land.

“You are fundamentally having to move more ore out of the ground, and obviously that has a bigger footprint from a mining perspective,” said Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which tracks the supply chain for electric vehicles.

Over time, the Rio Tuba mine swallowed up more of the rainforest.

The Rio Tuba mine doubled in size between 1987 and 2020. Satellite imagery shows its growth. (USGS / NASA Landsat / Earthrise)

Alarmed by the potential consequences, environmental and Indigenous rights groups marshaled their resources.

In 2010, the Indigenous peoples advocacy group Ancestral Land/Domain Watch and the Centre for Biocultural Diversity of the University of Kent in the United Kingdom released a sharply-worded report calling for an end to mining operations in the area.

“The continuation of mining activities in Bulanjao will irremediably damage the best conserved forest in the southern tip of Palawan, with predictable adverse consequences for the food production capacity of both indigenous and migrant farmers communities living at the foot of this mountain range,” the report said.

“Because of mining activities taking place at high elevations, the risk of landslides is likely to increase to an unprecedented level. Also, the eco-tourism potential of this mountain forest is likely to be jeopardized.”

Two years later, the nonprofit environmental group, Friends of the Earth Japan, announced that it completed an environmental field study in Palawan that it said found unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical that was at the center of the Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich,” in one of the rivers near the mine.

In an interview, Hozue Hatae, a researcher at Friends of the Earth Japan, said the group launched the tests after conducting a 2009 survey with 133 households that found 85 percent reported experiencing an uptick in coughs and other respiratory issues, as well as skin lesions.

The group conducted annual tests on the Togpon River from 2009 to 2019, which found that in the rainy season, it exceeded the hexavalent chromium exposure levels used by the World Health Organization in determining the safety of drinking water.

Last month, the reporting partner for this story, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, conducted water tests along the Togpon River and the Kinurong Creek. Four of the seven samples taken at different points along the waterways showed levels of hexavalent chromium higher than the WHO standard for drinking water.

Multiple people who live near the area said in interviews last month that locals stopped using the river and the creek for drinking water years ago after the water developed a reddish hue.

Nickel mines have been found to increase the release of soluble chromate into groundwater and surface water, experts say. The risk grows when proper containment measures are not in place. But it’s difficult to establish a definitive link between a mine and high chromate levels without water test results that predated the operations.

A reporter takes a water sample at the estuary of the Tuba River where the Togpon River merges. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

Two experts – Jennifer De France, team leader of drinking water quality at the WHO, and Murray McBride, a professor of soil science at Cornell University – said it was possible that the level of chromate in the water was a natural occurrence that resulted from high concentrations in underlying rocks.

Whatever the cause, McBride said, it could be detrimental to the rice paddies in the area.

“There is potential for crop damage from chromate accumulated in soil, as well as possible risk to human health if chromate levels in soils are too high,” he said.

Baylon, the Nickel Asia spokesman, pushed back at the idea that the mine was contaminating the water. He said Rio Tuba’s initial sampling in December 1996 showed “escalated values of hexavalent chromium in nickel mining water before the peak of the mining operation.”

He said Rio Tuba conducted a 2018-2019 study with the National Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, that showed hexavalent chromium in surface waters exiting the mine were at low levels while the metal in groundwater was generally undetected.

“The mine drainage system is designed to direct the mine surface runoff straight to the Rio Tuba River and not for drinking, irrigation or agricultural purposes,” Baylon said. “Therefore, it is very unlikely that mine waters, or Cr6+ (hexavalent chromium) will enter the local water supplies.”

He acknowledged that mining operations invariably impact the environment, but he noted that throughout history technological advances have come at a cost.

“I think human development has been a series of trade-offs over the years,” he added. “Part of what we’re suffering through today is paying off the coal factories, which made the industrial revolution possible.”

Baylon emphasized that his company takes a series of steps to mitigate the mine’s impact on the land, including a sophisticated process of planting trees over the mined area. He noted that Rio Tuba has received multiple honors, including the best practice in minerals mining award in the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Mineral Awards in 2017.

“We cannot castigate a whole industry because there are some irresponsible operators,” he says. “Life has been a series of trade-offs, and we're still trading off. But I think the trading off now is getting much better than it was.”

Representatives from Tesla and Toyota did not respond to requests for comment. A Panasonic spokesperson declined to comment.

The Rio Tuba mine. (NBC News)

The family of Kennedy Corio, a farmer and father of seven, is among the roughly 300 households living in the foothills of Mount Bulanjao. He said he now feels stuck in a place where his livelihood and his culture are slowly slipping away.

“We have nowhere to go now,” he said. “Our livelihood — it’s all there.”

For Corio and his fellow Palawan, the worries go beyond how the mining operation will impact his family’s access to clean water and food.

“We won’t have something to pass to the next generation if it all gets destroyed,” he said.

Kennedy Corio. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

The expansion of the Rio Tuba mine has been years in the making.

The Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. had previously received permission to mine a 990-hectare site [3.8 square miles]. But the ore reserves in that area will soon be depleted, company officials say.

Over the past nearly 20 years, the company has worked to overcome bureaucratic hurdles for the right to mine a much larger swath on the western side of Mount Bulanjao. Much of the area had originally been designated as “core zones,” or areas of maximum protection by Palawan law. But the layers of protection were gradually stripped away by local officials who changed land use and environment zoning maps to accommodate mining.

“It's very alarming that zones are being changed or revised without solid science to back it up and also without community consultations,” said Mayo-Anda, the environmental lawyer who also serves as executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Legal Assistance Center.

In 2019, Rio Tuba scored a major victory when the Philippines Mines and Geosciences Bureau approved its application to renew and amend its agreement with the government over the scope of its mining operations. The company secured the right to mine an additional 3,548 hectares of forest [13 square miles], which would more than quadruple the size of its present footprint.

Officials with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, a government agency that oversees the island’s strategic environmental plan and gets the last word on requests to develop forest areas, said it has cleared Rio Tuba to mine a smaller area: an additional 2,500 hectares [9.6 square miles], which would still more than triple its current footprint.

Paddies and Mount Bulanjao. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

Many tribal leaders in Bataraza support the expansion. They say the mine has benefited local people — both adults and children — in the form of jobs and academic scholarships.

“We benefit a lot from that company,” Angelo Lagrada, a local chieftain, said in a July 2019 interview with the local news site Palawan News.

But the Environmental Legal Assistance Center has filed a petition challenging the decision to change the status of the area targeted by Rio Tuba to make it possible to mine there. The case remains ongoing, but Mayo-Anda acknowledged that it’s unlikely to stall the project.

Rio Tuba is preparing to start mining the new section of Mount Bulanjao next year. It is also seeking the green light to dig up nickel ore on a 667-hectare site [2.5 square miles] on the western side of the mountain near the town of Rizal.

But Rio Tuba is facing a significant obstacle: tribal leaders in Rizal oppose the expansion. Under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, mining companies are required to seek the consent of the Indigenous residents living in the lands where they plan to set up operations.

Narlito Silnay, a tribal leader in Rizal, lamented how the project has driven a wedge between the Indigenous people dwelling in the area.

“We ourselves are fighting each other,” Silnay said. “Before we didn't go through this. It’s sad. It’s as if we don’t understand each other.”

Narlito Silnay, a tribal leader in Rizal. (Kimberly dela Cruz for NBC News)

The number of electric vehicles on the world’s roads hit a record high last year fueled by soaring Tesla sales. In recent months, General Motors and Volvo have announced that they intend to stop selling gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 20 years or so.

S&P Global and other industry analysts expect automakers to lean more on nickel for the surging electric vehicle battery market, moving away from cobalt due to its high cost and issues like the use of child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The bigger question about nickel is how do you get the refined battery grade material nickel out of the ground and to your battery market,” said Miller, of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, who expects the sector to grow by a factor of 10 to 15 by 2030.

The situation in Palawan raises a vexing question, experts say: To what extent is reducing carbon emissions through battery technology worth the damage it inflicts on the environment?

“I think it’s a really difficult ethical dilemma,” said Gillian Galford, a professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. “On one hand, we have a very promising technology that can help us address our fossil fuel dependence. But on the other hand, we have lots of environmental harms that can go into getting us to that point.”

She said the battle in Palawan reinforces the need for multiple approaches to tackling the world’s climate crisis.

“There's no one technology that's going to solve our climate crisis,” Galford added. “We have to deploy as many options as we feasibly can, and part of that may be electric vehicle development and increased dependence on that type of vehicle. But it's also going to be conserving our forests so that our forests are taking up carbon and storing carbon and doing all the hard work they have done for us already, to help us reduce the impacts of climate change.”

Bartolome, the rice farmer and mother of six, said she feels invisible in the debate. Standing in the shadow of Mount Bulanjao, she said she doesn’t understand why companies that make products used by wealthy people thousands of miles away must source materials from her backyard.

“They can buy more fuel there. They can find a way,” she said. “What are we going to do if our livelihood is destroyed? If our mountain is flattened?”

Michigan school shooting probe widens beyond suspect, parents

Melisa Nisa — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 12:20:31 GMT

U.S. expected to announce diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing
The Biden administration has been under pressure from lawmakers to take a stand against China's human rights abuses.

The Biden administration is expected to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing this week, a senior administration official said late Sunday.

A diplomatic boycott would mean that no U.S. government officials would attend the games but that U.S. athletes would still be allowed to compete.

A full boycott was not expected.

CNN first reported the news of the expected announcement.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back at the expected move Monday morning.

“The Winter Olympics is not a stage for political show and political manipulation,” spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news briefing. He said a boycott would be “a serious stain on the spirit of the Olympic Charter,” the document that spells out the spirit of the games, as well as “a naked political provocation, and a serious offense to the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”

2019 WTA Shenzhen Open - Main Draw Day 7 (Final)
Peng Shuai signs autographs at the WTA Shenzhen Open in January 2019. Visual China Group via Getty Images file
Previously, Chinese government officials have warned of a “robust Chinese response“ should the U.S. or other countries launch boycotts.

The Biden administration has been under pressure from lawmakers to institute the diplomatic boycott. They have wanted to take a stand against China’s human rights abuses.

President Joe Biden said last month that the administration was considering the move.

China has been criticized for cracking down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, for its policies toward Tibet and Taiwan, and for detaining and abusing Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

The State Department, along with some European countries, has classified China's actions against Uyghurs as "genocide."

“We have serious concerns about the human rights abuses that we’ve seen,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month.

Calls for either a diplomatic or full boycott of the games have grown since Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for three weeks after making sexual assault allegations against a former senior official in the Chinese Communist Party.

Peng has since reappeared but questions remain about whether she is acting on her own free will.

A week that sharply raises the stakes for the 2022 election

Bob Dole's standing with Latino voters reflects changing Republican Party
A diplomatic boycott is seen by some as the best way to hold China to account without punishing athletes who have been training for the games for years. Others say Beijing wouldn’t care too much about a few absent politicians and diplomats.

“Why should China care about their noises?” an editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper said last month, referring to Western objections to the games. “China would lose if it cares about this strategy.”

If the U.S. does impose such a boycott, it would likely not be the only country to do so. Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia are among those who have said they are considering similar action.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

A mass Olympic boycott would be the first since the Cold War.

In 1980, the administration of President Jimmy Carter led more than 60 nations in boycotting the Moscow Olympics over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier. In retaliation, fifteen countries followed a Soviet-led boycott of the games in Los Angeles four years later.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, says he is against boycotts against his organization’s marquee event.

“A sports boycott serves nothing,” he said last year, noting that the Soviet Union stayed in Afghanistan for nine years after the 1980 boycott over its invasion. “It’s only hurting the athletes and it’s hurting the population of the country because they are losing the joy to share.”

The IOC has been accused of being too soft on China, both in the Peng case and allowing Beijing to host the games at all.

The growing pressure on China comes as the Uyghur Tribunal, a non-governmental body set up by lawyers in the U.K., get set to issue a judgement on Thursday on whether China’s actions against its Uyghurs Muslim minority constitute genocide, something the U.S. already says is the case.

China says camps where human rights groups say some 1 million people have been held are for “vocational education and training” and are necessary to fight domestic terrorism.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO

Melisa Nisa — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 21:40:44 GMT

Biden urges booster shots amid growing alarm over omicron variant

The president made the remarks after meeting with his Covid advisers Monday morning.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden urged vaccinated Americans to get their Covid booster shots and once again pleaded with those who have yet to be vaccinated to get their first dose in remarks Monday amid growing concerns about the potential threat posed by the new omicron variant.

"The best protection against this new variant or any of the variants out there, the ones we've been dealing with already, is getting fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot," Biden said. "Most Americans are fully vaccinated, but not yet boosted."

Biden said he didn't believe there would be a need for lockdowns like the ones seen last year, but that people should still wear a mask in crowded indoor areas. He also said he didn't anticipate any other travel restrictions but said that could change depending on the spread of the virus.

"The variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic," Biden said.

While administration officials believe the current vaccines will likely provide protection against the new variant, the U.S. will do everything possible to accelerate the production of new vaccines or boosters if needed, the president said.

President Joe Biden receives a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the South Court Auditorium in the White House Sept. 27, 2021.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images file

"We're throwing everything we can at this virus, tracking it from every angle, and that's what we have to keep doing," Biden said.

Biden made the remarks after meeting with his Covid advisers Monday morning, following a World Health Organization warning that the global risk of the new omicron variant is “very high” as the list of countries reporting cases of the variant grows.

Administration officials have said it could be several weeks before they know whether the variant has the ability to erode the protection offered by the vaccine and what level of severity and transmissibility it has. In the meantime, public health officials have said they believe the surge in antibodies created by a booster shot could offer one of the best defenses for the time being.

Supreme Court turns away vaccine objection from Massachusetts hospital workers

Biden administration won't take action against unvaccinated federal workers until next year

Only a fraction of eligible Americans have gotten booster shots despite data showing a significant dropoff in vaccine effectiveness after six months. Just 42 percent of seniors have received their third dose despite having been eligible for a booster since September, while 30 percent of those 50 and over have had a booster shot.

Earlier this month, the FDA authorized booster shots for all adults six months after they were vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna shots and two months after receiving the Johnson & Johnson shot.

The variant has triggered a level of alarm across the globe not seen since the early days of the pandemic. The large number and location of the mutations of the omicron variant suggest that it may be highly transmissible and able to escape the body’s immune response and some of the protection offered by vaccines, infectious disease experts have said.

Omicron variant is worthy of concern but not alarm, doctor says

The new variant was first detected in southern Africa last week, and has now been detected in countries around the world, including Canada, Scotland and Portugal. Facing growing pressure to move quickly, Biden said on Friday the U.S. would restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries, going into effect Monday.

Biden said the U.S would see the variant within its borders despite travel restrictions.

"While we have that travel restrictions can slow the speed of omicron, it cannot prevent it. But here's what it does: it gives us time," Biden said.

The U.S. was already seeing an increase in Covid infections before the new variant was identified, with more than 1,000 people continuing to die each day from the virus and hospitals reaching capacity. Public health officials had warned the uptick could turn into another winter surge in cases as the colder weather pushed people indoors and more Americans traveled for holiday gatherings.