Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-The New York Times is publishing hundreds of the Pentagon’s confidential assessments of reports (obtained through Freedom of Information requests beginning in March 2017 and subsequent lawsuits filed against the Defense Department and the US Central Command) of civilian casualties resulting from US-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. “The documents lay bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, many of them children.”
-A New York Times investigation found that the American air war in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan has been plagued by flawed intelligence, poor targeting and thousands of civilian deaths.
-As the pandemic has entered its third year, resurgent thanks to the Omicron variant, experts are urging U.S. adults to get vaccinated and boosted.
Yet among vaccinated Americans, only 30 percent have received a third dose, according to the C.D.C., and the lagging response is worrying health experts.
-Americans on edge as cases rise and the holidays loom. A week from Christmas, nearly 1,300 Americans are dying every day from the coronavirus and more than 120,000 are testing positive.
- Black elected officials, from Congress down to the counties, have been drawn out of their districts or face headwinds to hold onto their seats.
-Democrats’ achievements in 2021 were overshadowed by legislative setbacks, fallout from the Jan. 6 attack and a sense that Congress was not rising to meet a perilous moment in history.
-China’s crackdown has driven most of Hong Kong’s popular pro-democracy candidates either into police custody or exile. Officials are urging the public to vote, but turnout is expected to be low.
-Once a Symbol of US Strength, the Afghan district of Marja faces dire times. Residents are growing desperate for any kind of help, a frustration that has turned to anger that the international community has abandoned them.
-Despite a bid to protect it from a contentious rezoning plan, the Elizabeth Street Garden in SoHo will be replaced by housing units.
-IVF patients are faced with a growing list of costly “add-ons.” For one such test, some say more robust research is needed to support its effectiveness.
-Israel has threatened military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if need be. But defense officials say Israel does not have the ability, at least not anytime soon.
-Olympic leaders have criticized China’s handling of the Peng Shuai (the tennis player) case but tried not to say anything that would jeopardize the safety of the American athletes headed to Beijing.
-Authorities in Virginia say that Anthony Robinson, the so-called ‘shopping cart killer’, met his victims via online dating sites and later transported their bodies in shopping carts to dispose of them.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
The Netherlands has become the first EU country to re-enter a strict nationwide lockdown, in a response to the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that will shutter swaths of the economy until at least mid-January.
-Republican Party operatives in Pennsylvania are betting that another conservative financier, Bridgewater chief executive David McCormick, will be able to walk a similar political tightrope to win the state’s US Senate race next year.
-With the labor market the tightest in four decades and worker availability expected to determine the success or failure of deliveries this season, Amazon has taken the initiative with bonuses of £1,000 to attract staff and increase its Christmas workforce to about 75,000 people this year, leaping from less than a third of Royal Mail’s peak headcount before the pandemic to almost half the size.
-A stunning by-election loss follows a series of crises that have damaged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s claim to be a political winner. As a result Johnson was put on probation by Conservative MPs with warnings he could face a coup by mid-2022 unless he raises his game.
-Russia has published a set of stringent demands it is making of the US and NATO, which would end all prospect of Ukraine or any more former Soviet states joining the transatlantic alliance and rewrite many of the principles upholding European security since the end of the cold war.
-Ghislaine Maxwell declined to testify on Friday as her lawyers wrapped up her defense on criminal sex trafficking charges after two days. “Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and so there is no need for me to testify,” Maxwell, 59, said on Friday afternoon, after Judge Alison Nathan offered her the standard opportunity to take the stand to testify in her own defense.
-Russia has published a set of stringent demands it is making of the US and NATO, which would end all prospect of Ukraine or any more former Soviet states joining the transatlantic alliance and rewrite many of the principles upholding European security since the end of the cold war.
-The Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as early as March in the face of “alarmingly high inflation”, according to a senior US central bank official.
-Turkey’s main stock exchange halted trading on Friday after the country’s currency crisis, already stinging bonds, spread to equities. Borsa Istanbul announced a temporary so-called circuit breaker after its main Bist 100 index fell 5 per cent. After trading resumed, the benchmark was more than 8 per cent lower.
-Blackstone is close to acquiring a stake in one of New York’s newest office towers, in a deal that would value the 70-storey skyscraper at $2.85B and signal confidence that the crisis-hit city will remain the nexus of corporate America. Built on the eve of the pandemic, One Manhattan West abuts the giant Hudson Yards redevelopment and has sweeping views of the Hudson River.
-Thierry Breton, the EU internal markets commissioner has complained that US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo is campaigning on behalf of Big Tech, days after the EU approved a common position on draft rules aimed at curbing the power of large American tech companies, fueling a transatlantic tit-for-tat among senior officials.
THE NEW YORK POST
-Harvard University will go remote again in January due to the spread of the Omicron variant: “Please know that we do not take this step lightly,” university president Lawrence Bacow wrote in a memo to students and staff. “Public health experts anticipate the increase in COVID-19 cases to continue, driven by the Omicron variant, which we have now confirmed is already present in our campus community.”
-The national unemployment rate has dropped to a low 4.3%, but the percentage of working-age adults with jobs or looking for jobs hasn’t reached pre-pandemic levels, meaning millions have dropped out of the workforce. In 2019, the participation rate was close to 63.5% — it’s now 61.8%.
-Peloton chief executive John Foley has quietly snatched up a $55 million estate in East Hampton — even as employees of the exercise-bike company fret about their futures as its stock price tanks, The Post has learned.
-Boeing suspended its coronavirus vaccination requirement for US based employees, capping weeks of uncertainty as thousands of workers sought exemptions and challenges to a federal mandate played out in court.