USA

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker said on Sunday they both tested positive for COVID-19 and were experiencing mild symptoms amid a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.

Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, 72, said on Twitter she is vaccinated and boosted and regularly tested for COVID-19, and "while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case."

(AP) --- Moderna said Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine should offer protection against the rapidly spreading omicron variant.

Moderna said lab tests showed the half-dose booster shot increased by 37 times the level of so-called neutralizing antibodies able to fight omicron.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell was a dangerous and sophisticated predator who caused “deep and lasting harm” to young girls by recruiting and grooming them to be sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein, a prosecutor told jurors Monday during closing arguments.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe told the jury that Epstein could not have preyed on teenage girls for more than a decade without the help of the British socialite, who she described as the “lady of the house” as Epstein abused girls at a New York mansion, a Florida estate and a ranch in New Mexico.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Closing arguments are set for Monday in the manslaughter trial of the former Minnesota police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Daunte Wright as he tried to drive away from a traffic stop.

Kim Potter’s case will go to the mostly white jury after Judge Regina Chu gives them final instructions. The judge has already told jurors that she will not make them deliberate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. They’ll return after the holiday if they haven’t reached a verdict by then.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, seeking to end her civil investigation into his business practices.

In the lawsuit, filed two weeks weeks after James requested that Trump sit for a Jan. 7 deposition, Trump alleges the investigation has violated his constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major step to fight climate change, the Biden administration is raising vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

A final rule being issued Monday would raise mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industry-wide target of 40 miles per gallon by 2026 — 25% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration last year and 5% higher than a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency in August.

20 Dec 2021; MEMO: Former US President Donald Trump has said that Evangelical Christians of the United States love Israel more than American Jews, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid revealed on Friday.

"There are people in this country that are Jewish that no longer love Israel," Ravid reported Trump saying, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The Evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country."

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Stacey Abrams, who built her national reputation by advocating for voting rights, is calling on Congress to take action on federal voting rules as the Democrat launches a second bid to become Georgia’s governor.

Senators including Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, Abrams’ close ally, have been arguing in recent days that the Senate must try again on federal voting standards, despite earlier setbacks.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The COVID-19 omicron variant is “just raging around the world,” the White House’s top medical adviser said Sunday as President Joe Biden prepares to issue “a stark warning of what the winter will look like” for unvaccinated Americans.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “the real problem” for the U.S. hospital system is that “we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin all but delivered a death blow to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion domestic initiative, throwing his party’s agenda into jeopardy, infuriating the White House and leaving angry colleagues desperate to salvage what’s left of a top priority.