USA

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Although his birthday is still a few days away, 60-year-old Harley Kelso knows what he’s getting from his sister.

The retired truck driver, whose home and car were battered by last week’s tornado — one of dozens that ripped across the South and Midwest, killing at least 90 people — said his sister is bringing chainsaws and her two sons to his home in hard-hit Mayfield to cut apart a tree that’s resting on his family’s minivan.

(AP) --- Lines again stretch around blocks at some COVID-19 testing sites. Refrigerated mobile morgues are on order, and parts of Europe are re-tightening borders amid a winter spike in coronavirus infections.

This year’s holiday season was supposed to be a do-over for last year’s subdued celebrations. Instead it’s turning into a redux of restrictions, cancellations and rising angst over the never-ending pandemic.

(AP) --- Most Americans should be given the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead of the Johnson & Johnson shot that can cause rare but serious blood clots, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

The strange clotting problem has caused nine confirmed deaths after J&J vaccinations — while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t come with that risk and also appear more effective, said advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria remains vital, the United Nations Secretary-General said in an internal report, as a UN authorization allowing aid into rebel-held areas in the country’s northwest without approval from Damascus is up for renewal.

   A rare moment of cooperation between the United States and Russia in July allowed for a six-month extension of activity at Bab al-Hawa, the only border crossing through which aid reaches the rebel stronghold of Idlib province.
That authorization, renewable once, runs until Jan 10.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived in 26 U.S. states a COVID-19 mandate issued by President Joe Biden's administration requiring millions of healthcare workers to get vaccinated if they work in facilities that receive federal dollars.

In a rare win for Biden's pandemic strategy, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a lower court had the authority to block the mandate in only the 14 states that had sued and was wrong to impose a nationwide injunction.

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Head of the United Nations has reiterated the importance of cross-border aid to north-west Syria as essential for millions of people, as the authorisation to use the last border crossing is set to expire next month.

In a confidential internal report obtained by the news agency AFP, yesterday, the UN's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said that "Cross-border assistance remains life-saving for millions of people in need in north-west Syria."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries were indicted Wednesday for a crude spill that fouled Southern California waters and beaches in October, an event prosecutors say was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.

Amplify Energy Corp. and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City jury has heard four women detail accusations that they were teens when they became victims of a sex-abuse scheme devised by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Starting Thursday, the British socialite’s attorneys are expected to make their case that Maxwell isn’t the one to blame.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors were expected to wrap up their case Thursday against the Minnesota police officer charged in Daunte Wright ’s death, setting the stage for a defense that at some point will have Kim Potter directly addressing the jury.

Potter, 49, has said she meant to use her Taser when she shot and killed Wright on April 11, as he had pulled away from officers at a traffic stop and was trying to drive away. Body-camera video captured her shouting “I’ll tase you!” and “Taser, Taser, Taser!” before firing once.

DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) — Tight-knit communities still digging out from the deadly tornadoes that killed dozens of people across eight states in the South and Midwest are turning to another heavy-hearted task: honoring and burying their dead.

The storms that began Friday night destroyed lives and property from Arkansas to Illinois and in parts of neighboring states, carving a more than 200-mile (320-kilometer) path through Kentucky alone. The National Weather Service recorded at least 41 tornadoes, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky.