* President Biden Delivers Remarks On The Status Of The Country's Fight Against Covid-19
* Biden Admin To Combat Omicron By Distributing 500 Million at Home Covid-19 At Home Test Kits
* The "Verification" Has Begun
* Israel Set To Offer Fourth Dose Of Covid- 19 Vaccine To People Over 60
* 12-21-21 Press Briefing By Press Secretary Jen Psaki
* This Is Your Last Chance. People Who Aren't Ready Now Are Going To Be Caught In A Bad Position
* 19 States Enacted Voting Restrictions in 2021, What's Next?
* Putin Warns NATO Of Military Response A US Seeks Dialogue
* The "Most Serious" Security Breach Ever Is Unfolding Right Now. Here's What You Need To Know
* CDC: Omicron Is Dominant Variant In US
* Inside The Struggles And Heartaches Of FEMA's Massive Covid Funeral Assistance Program
* Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Slams Illegal Guns And Gang Members Waging Violence
* Germany Imposes Tighter Curbs As Nation Braces For Omicron
* Russia Threatens To Put Nuclear Missiles In Venezuela, Cuba, & Kaliningrad If NATO Refuses Peace
President Biden Delivers Remarks On The Status Of The Country’s Fight Against COVID-19
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Biden Administration To Combat Omicron By Distributing 500 Million At-Home Covid-19 Test Kits
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is preparing to distribute 500 million free at-home Covid-19 testing kits to Americans and deploy military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals this winter, as the Omicron variant becomes the dominant form of the virus in the U.S.
“We have to do more. We have to do better—and we will,” President Biden said at the White House on Tuesday during a speech outlining the new coronavirus-response measures.
Mr. Biden’s administration is grappling with how to publicly underscore the urgency surrounding the highly transmissible variant, while seeking to convey that the U.S. is better prepared to battle the pandemic than it was a year ago.
“Over 200 million Americans should have the peace of mind they did not have in March of 2020,” the president said, referring to the vaccinated population in the U.S. “They’re protected from hospitalization. They’re protected from death.” Read More
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The "Verification" HAS BEGUN..
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Israel Set To Offer Fourth Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine To People Over 60
JERUSALEM, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Israel announced on Tuesday that it will offer a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to people older than 60, amid concern about the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
A Health Ministry expert panel recommended the fourth shot, a decision that was swiftly welcomed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as "great news that will help us overcome the Omicron wave that is spreading around the world."
Although the decision is pending formal approval by senior health officials, Bennett urged Israelis to get the dose as soon as possible, saying: "My message is - don’t waste time, go get vaccinated." The decision follows the first known death in Israel of a patient with the Omicron variant. An Israeli hospital on Tuesday confirmed the death but said he had suffered from a number of serious pre-existing conditions.
The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said the man, in his 60s, died on Monday, two weeks after he was admitted to the coronavirus ward.
12/21/21: Press Briefing By Press Secretary Jen Psaki
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THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE. PEOPLE WHO AREN'T READY NOW ARE GOING TO BE CAUGHT IN A BAD POSITION
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19 States Enacted Voting Restrictions In 2021. What's Next?
State Republicans spent 2021 hunting for the widespread voter fraud that former President Donald Trump told his supporters cost him the election.
They never found it. Still, the year was characterized by a wave of GOP-led voting restrictions fueled by Trump’s lie — and more election changes are on the horizon next year, according to newly released numbers from the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks voting bills and advocates for federal election legislation.
So far, Republican legislators in four states — Arizona, Missouri, New Hampshire and South Carolina — have prefiled at least 13 bills that the organization says would make it harder to vote. Nine other states will carry over 88 restrictive bills from the last legislative session. Legislators in five states — Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Tennessee — have also filed six bills to initiate or allow partisan ballot reviews. Four would initiate such reviews for the 2020 election results, according to the Brennan Center.
“There is a continual drumbeat from the former president that the election was stolen — this is an issue that state legislators feel pressure from Trump from above and from the base from below that’s demanding that steps be taken,” said Rick Hasen, a professor and election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. “So this is an issue that’s going to remain, unfortunately, front and center.” Read More
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Putin Warns NATO Of Military Response As U.S. Seeks Dialogue
President Vladimir Putin threatened a military response to counter NATO expansion toward Russia’s borders, but said he hoped for a diplomatic solution to rising tensions as the U.S. said it was ready to discuss his security demands. The U.S. and its allies “must understand that we have nowhere to retreat further” and Russia can’t allow them to deploy missiles in Ukraine that would be a few minutes’ strike distance from Moscow, Putin told senior officers Tuesday at the Russian Defense Ministry. Russia will “take adequate military-technical response measures and react harshly to unfriendly steps,” he said.
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The ‘Most Serious’ Security Breach Ever Is Unfolding Right Now. Here’s What You Need To Know.
On Dec. 9, word of a newly discovered computer bug in a hugely popular piece of computer code started rippling around the cybersecurity community. By the next day, nearly every major software company was in crisis mode, trying to figure out how its products were affected and how it could patch the hole.
The descriptions used by security experts to describe the new vulnerability in an extremely common section of code called log4j border on the apocalyptic.
“The log4j vulnerability is the most serious vulnerability I have seen in my decades-long career,” Jen Easterly, security director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in an interview last week on CNBC.
So why is this obscure piece of software causing so much panic, and should regular computer users be worried? Read More
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CDC: Omicron Is Dominant Variant In US
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data showing that the omicron variant is estimated to account for 73% of new COVID cases domestically.
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Inside The Struggles And Heartaches Of FEMA’s Massive Covid Funeral Assistance Program
“I hope you had a wonderful weekend and you’re ready to go,” came the voice of the shift manager overseeing FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance call center. The system had been crashing all morning, she said. “It’s been doing its thing again. Just use your judgment.”
Irene and her colleagues joked in a group chat that “just use your judgment” should be the motto of the assistance line. It was the main reason Irene, 23, had decided this would be her last week with the program, which provides up to $9,000 to offset funeral costs for victims of covid-19. She had started the job when FEMA created the call center in the spring. She liked the idea of helping bereaved families, and had also been thrilled to make $11.40 an hour instead of the $6 she’d been earning as a barista. But several thousand tearful, frustrated, confused callers later, she was done. She just wanted to get through her final days without stumbling and making some grieving stranger’s life even harder. Read More
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Slams Illegal Guns And Gang Members Waging Violence
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot details steps to decrease violent crime in her city.
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Germany Imposes Tighter Curbs As Nation Braces For Omicron
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed through tighter social-distancing restrictions to stave off the threat of a “massive” surge of the omicron Covid-19 variant just as families gather for the Christmas holidays. The latest measures, which add to existing curbs that mainly affect the unvaccinated, include limiting gatherings to 10 people starting Dec. 28. The restrictions, which Scholz negotiated with regional leaders on Tuesday, also apply to those who are inoculated or have recovered from the virus. “We can’t close our eyes to the next wave that’s beginning to appear in front of us,” Scholz told reporters in Berlin after meeting the country’s 16 state premiers. The chancellor said Germans should celebrate Christmas, but cautiously.
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RUSSIA THREATENS TO PUT NUCLEAR MISSILES IN VENEZUELA, CUBA & KALININGRAD IF NATO REFUSES PEACE
THINGS ARE ESCALATING FAST BETWEEN RUSSIA, THE US AND NATO. THIS IS THE LATEST INFORMATION. UNLESS NATO AND THE US AGREES TO SIT DOWN AND WORK OUT A LASTING PEACE TREATY FOR BOTH SIDES TO LIMIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN EUROPE THEN RUSSIA PROMISSES TO PUT THEM RIGHT ON OUR DOORSTEP.