Wednesday 30 December
Retired Couple Make 1,400 Toys for Children in Need This Christmas: ’People need hope’ – Read on
“Rise and grind. It’s Hump Day!.”
- US Senate Poised to Vote on Defense Funding Veto Override
- US lags behind some other countries in Covid-19 vaccinations
- US approves potential sale of 3,000 smart bombs to Saudi Arabia
- Louisville police officer who shot Breonna Taylor told he will be fired
- Stay-at-home orders extended in California as Covid cases surge
- Covid-19: US reports first known case of highly-infectious variant
Half of U.S. states will raise their minimum wage in 2021—and more pay hikes could be on the way – CNBC
Oil prices up on weaker dollar and lower inventories – Reuters
Inside the Google-Facebook Ad Deal at the Heart of a Price-Fixing Lawsuit – WSJ
Wall Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began — but many families are left behind – NBC
Corporate America experiences ‘K-shaped’ recovery – FT
US Senate Poised to Vote on Defense Funding Veto Override
VOA says Mitch McConnell is urging his colleagues to override Donald Trump’s veto of a $740 billion defense spending measure in a vote expected this week.
“President Trump has rightly noted this year’s defense bill doesn’t contain every provision that we Republicans would have wanted. I’m confident our Democratic colleagues feel the same way,” McConnell said Tuesday.
“But that is the case every year. And yet, for 59 consecutive years and counting, Washington has put our differences aside, found common ground, and passed the annual defense bill.”
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US lags behind some other countries in Covid-19 vaccinations
CNN says the US is lagging behind several other countries in its Covid-19 vaccination efforts, according to an analysis by CNN of the most recent government data.
2,127,143 doses were administered from December 14 through December 28 at 9 a.m. That’s 151,939 shots per day, or a daily rate of 46 shots per 100,000 people in the country.
That is significantly lower than the daily vaccination rates for Israel, the UK, and Bahrain. The daily rate per 100,000 in Israel is 608, for Bahrain it’s 263, and for the UK it’s 60, according to data supplied by those governments.
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US approves potential sale of 3,000 smart bombs to Saudi Arabia
TRT World says the US State Department has approved the potential sale of 3,000 precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia in a deal valued at up to $290 billion.
The sale comes in the final days of Donald Trump’s term. Joe Biden has pledged to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest buyer of American weapons, in a bid to pressure Riyadh to end a war in Yemen that has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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Louisville police officer who shot Breonna Taylor told he will be fired
Reuters says one of the Louisville police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, and the officer that prepared the warrant for the botched raid during which she was killed, were told that the department aimed to fire them.
Lawyers for Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared the search warrant, said in a statement quoted by the New York Times that each had received notices of termination.
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Stay-at-home orders extended in California as Covid cases surge
NBC News says stay-at-home orders were extended for two large parts of California as hospitals have been severely strained by surging Covid-19 cases, health officials said.
“We certainly know that Southern California hospitals are in crisis, and some have begun to implement parts of crisis care,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said in a video briefing.
No facility has notified the state that it is fully in crisis care yet, but some in Southern California have made decisions that would be a part of that, he said, including decisions about how to accept ambulances and staffing.
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Covid-19: US reports first known case of highly-infectious variant
BBC News says the first reported US case of the highly-infectious Covid-19 variant that emerged in the UK has been confirmed in the state of Colorado.
The patient, a man in his 20s with no recent travel history, is currently in isolation. State health officials said they were working to identify contacts and other potential cases of the new variant.
It came as Joe Biden criticised the Trump administration’s distribution of vaccines.
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