Joe Biden formally introduced his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin. As a recently retired general, Austin will need a waiver from Congress to be confirmed, and Biden implored lawmakers to support the waiver. “I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it,” Biden said.
Hunter Biden said the US attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating his “tax affairs”. Biden said in a statement released by his father’s transition team, “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
The House passed a spending bill to keep the government funded for another week. The bill, if it passes the Senate, will give lawmakers another week to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package and coronavirus relief.
The US government and a coalition of states filed parallel antirust lawsuits against Facebook. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who is leading the coalition of states bringing one of the lawsuits, said in a statement, “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”
Canada approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The UK has already started distributing the vaccine to its citizens, and the FDA released an analysis of the treatment yesterday that raised no safety concerns, meaning an approval is likely imminent in the US.
The US is expecting to begin administering its first coronavirus vaccines this week. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first to get access.
Report: Biden expected to pick Katherine Tai to be US trade rep
The president-elect plans to nominate Katherine Tai as US trade representative, the Washington Post reports:
Tai, who has been the chief trade counsel on the House Ways and Means Committee since 2017, is the lead adviser to Democrats and the committee chairman on international trade issues.
Though she would be making an unusual jump to a Cabinet-level position, Tai is well regarded by both the moderate and liberal wings of the party and is backed by prominent lawmakers, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). A group of 10 female House Democrats led by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.) and Judy Chu (Calif.) wrote Biden last month backing Tai as “uniquely qualified” for the job.
Google will investigate what led to AI researcher's exit, CEO says
From Guardian staff and agencies:
The CEO of Google has apologized for how a prominent artificial intelligence researcher’s abrupt departure last week has “seeded doubts” in the company.
Sundar Pichai told Google employees in a Wednesday memo, obtained by Axios, that the tech company was beginning a review of the circumstances leading up to Timnit Gebru’s exit last week, and how Google could have “led a more respectful process”.
Gebru is a top scholar of AI ethics and one of the most prominent Black scientists in her field. She said she had been fired; Google has referred to it as a resignation.
The dispute leading up to her departure concerned Google’s efforts to disassociate itself from a research paper that Gebru had co-authored, which examined the societal dangers of an AI technology used by Google. The paper contended that technology companies could do more to ensure AI systems aimed at mimicking human writing and speech did not exacerbate historical gender biases and use of offensive language, according to a draft copy seen by Reuters.
Gebru tweeted last week that she had been fired after sending an email to an internal group for women and allies working in the company’s AI unit. Her email referenced the disputed research paper but more broadly expressed frustration at Google’s diversity programs. In it, Gebru argued that “there is zero accountability” or real incentive for Google leadership to change.
Her departure has prompted widespread anger within the company. More than 1,200 Google employees signed a letter of protest last Friday, accusing Google of “unprecedented research censorship”, racism and defensiveness.
California, the US’s most populous state, expects to begin vaccinations starting this month, according to the governor’s office.
Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first to access the vaccines. Across the US, the first doses of the vaccine could be administered this week.
CA gets our first #COVID19 vaccines in the coming days & we're prepared to begin Phase 1a to health care workers & nursing home residents safely, effectively & efficiently. We also expect 672k Moderna doses this month. Wide distribution is further away but hope is on the horizon.
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) December 9, 2020
The Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes involve his Chinese business dealings, the AP reports:
Hunter Biden has a history of international affairs and business dealings in a number of countries. The revelation puts a renewed spotlight on the questions about his financial dealings that dogged his father’s successful White House campaign.
Federal investigators served a round of subpoenas on Tuesday, including for Biden, according to another person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. The tax investigation centers on his business dealings, the person said.
Covid vaccines: US regulator sceptical over AstraZeneca model
Sarah Boseley
For a man presenting landmark results from trials of a vaccine that it is hoped will save the world from a devastating pandemic, Sir Menelas Pangalos did not look cheerful on Wednesday.
Pangalos, executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, and his colleagues are undoubtedly exhausted, having been working round the clock on the coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University since April. But they are now dealing with a sizeable new headache – the doubts of the US regulator.
It is clear that in spite of the critical need for coronavirus vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration is not going to rush to approve the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, even though the US, through its “Operation Warp Speed”, has put in substantial funding and ordered 300m doses.
Unlike Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA products, the AstraZeneca vaccine is cheap, can be stored at ordinary fridge temperatures, is easy to manufacture and presents the best hope at the moment for a vaccine for the billions rather than the few.
But while the UK, the rest of Europe, and Canada and India could approve it in the coming weeks, the US, which currently has the world’s biggest epidemic, will have to wait.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been the subject of withering criticism in the US media. It has suffered by comparison with Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines, manufactured with a different and novel technology, have effectively scored straight As. Their vaccines have shown 95% efficacy in very large and straightforward trials involving respectively more than 40,000 and 30,000 people.
Criticism of the AstraZeneca vaccine focuses on three main issues. AstraZeneca’s efficacy data relates to fewer people than the other vaccines; so far 11,636 in the UK and Brazil trials, although there are more to come, including a 30,000-strong trial in the US partly funded by Operation Warp Speed.
A woman in the UK given the AstraZeneca jab developed transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder causing inflammation of the spinal cord, leading to the trials being paused worldwide in September. And the efficacy results were 62% overall, but 90% covering a sub-group of fewer than 3,000 people who were inadvertently given a lower starting dose.
Researchers said that pooling the results, which they had agreed to do with regulators before they knew the outcome, gave them 70% efficacy overall.
But it looked messy. One investment analyst opined at that point: “We believe that this product will never be licensed in the US.”
The long-shot suit from attorney general Ken Paxton of Texas is seeking to challenge the electoral college outcomes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, and describes the votes as “tainted.”
Mr Trump asked Mr Cruz, Republican of Texas, if he would be willing to make oral arguments in the case should it reach the supreme court. Mr Cruz agreed.
The call was the latest example of Mr Trump’s continuing efforts to try to upend the results of the election with claims of widespread fraud that his lawyers have yet to demonstrate in court. Dozens of legal challenges by the Trump campaign and Republican proxies related to the election have been tossed out by judges, including judges appointed by Mr Trump.
Before he joined the Senate in 2013, Mr Cruz argued before the supreme court nine times, representing Texas in most of those cases in his role as the state’s solicitor general.
Trump just tweeted, in a post flagged by Twitter:
Wow! At least 17 States have joined Texas in the extraordinary case against the greatest Election Fraud in the history of the United States. Thank you!
But the suit makes entirely false, odd claims about absentee ballots, and claims it was illegal for Georgia to process ballots before election day, even though states that Trump won – where Trump isn’t disputing the results – also processed ballots before election day.
The federal investigation into Hunter Biden has nothing to do with a laptop that Trump supporters alleged belonged to the younger Biden, and held up as evidence of wrongdoing.
In the weeks before the election, Trump supporters used the existence of a laptop they said was connected to Hunter Biden – and the emergence of someone who maintains he had business discussions with him – to raise questions about Joe Biden’s knowledge of his son’s activities in Ukraine and China. The president-elect has said he did not discuss his son’s international business dealings with him and has denied having ever taken money from a foreign country.
The laptop surfaced publicly in October when the New York Post reported on emails that it said had come from Hunter Biden’s laptop and that it said it received from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.
Another person familiar with the matter told the AP that the tax investigation does not have anything to do with the laptop.
The people had knowledge of the investigation but were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
'All my plans were ruined': Covid's economic toll on young Americans
Michael Sainato reports:
David Little of Tampa, Florida, obtained his master’s degree in architecture and was excitedly waiting for his girlfriend to finish her degree before the couple moved to Philadelphia. The coronavirus pandemic halted those plans as they both struggled to find work matching their education.
“I have no idea what I’m doing right now. My plans were completely ruined by all of this,” said Little, 26, who was working as a valet before he was laid off in April. “There are no jobs out there even nationwide for entry level architecture grads, there is no real end in sight, and with my girlfriend not having any income because she’s also in architecture, it’s causing tension that wouldn’t normally be there.”
Like many young people, Little has been hit hard by the economic collapse in the wake of Covid-19. He’s uncertain of what will happen when his unemployment benefits run out at the end of this year, no longer has health insurance after turning 26 this year, and has already racked up significant credit card debt to cover bills over the past few months.
Before the pandemic, younger people in America were already making substantially less money than older generations, even compared with when those older people were young. In 1989, baby boomers controlled 21% of the nation’s wealth; millennials controlled just 5% of the nation’s wealth in 2019.
And coronavirus has made life worse.
From spring 2019 to spring 2020, unemployment among adults ages 16 to 24 increased from 8.4% to 24.4%, compared with an increase of 2.8% to 11.3% for adults 25 and older. Young Black (29.6%), Hispanic (27.5%), and Asian American (29.7%) workers are experiencing even higher rates of unemployment. One-third of young Americans in the current labor market are classified as underemployed.
Biden pledges ‘100m shots in 100 days’ as he introduces health teamRead more
Lane Klumb, 24, of Winona, Minnesota, was furloughed from his job in retail in March 2020 and wasn’t recalled until October, for a seasonal position.
“Between all the bills I accumulated during my furlough, I am still currently paying off credit cards, as I needed to max all of my cards out just to pay my bills and have food,” he said.
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate, has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to run for a seat that would be vacated by representative Marcia Fudge if Fudge is confirmed to serve in Biden’s cabinet.
Biden is expected to name Fudge as his pick for Housing and Urban Development secretary, though he has yet to make an official announcement. Fudge would then have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to take the post.
Politico first reported that Turner was eyeing a congressional seat yesterday.
In Idaho, a virtual health board meeting on Tuesday night was cut short because protestors gathered at the homes of officials. The Idaho Statesman reports:
The Central District Health Board of Health meeting Tuesday night to discuss and vote on a public health order dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic was adjourned shortly after it started because of the danger posed by protesters at the CDH office and at some board members’ places of residence.
Moments after a tearful Commissioner Diana Lachiondo left the virtual meeting to head to her house — where her children were home alone, and where anti-mask, anti-health-order protesters had reportedly gathered — CDH Director Russ Duke interrupted a doctor’s statements on the toll of the coronavirus to tell the board and people watching that Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee had requested that the meeting be ended for safety reasons.
Dr. Ted Epperly, another board member, said protesters gathered at his house as well. He told the Statesman that about 15 people were outside his home, “beating garbage cans and flashing strobe lights through my windows. Two came up and knocked on my door during the meeting.”
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting to a later date and seconded, and board members voted to adjourn shortly after Duke’s statement.
“I am disappointed that we had to table the vote,” Epperly told the Statesman.
As the coronavirus pandemic in the US escalates, so have protests against health orders to rein in the pandemic. In Idaho, coronavirus deaths have increased by nearly 50% over the past fortnight.
Commissioner Lachinondo, teary, told her colleagues, “my 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door. I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.”
Per NBC’s Tom Winter, Hunter Biden and his former wife Kathleen Buhle also had an IRS lien against them for unpaid taxes. It remains unclear whether the lien is part of the investigation by the US attorney’s office in Delaware.
MORE: Up until March 20th of this year Hunter and his former wife Kathleen Buhle had an IRS lien against them for taxes not paid in the total of $112,805.09, according to publicly available documents.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden formally introduced his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin. As a recently retired general, Austin will need a waiver from Congress to be confirmed, and Biden implored lawmakers to support the waiver. “I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it,” Biden said.
Hunter Biden said the US attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating his “tax affairs.” Biden said in a statement released by his father’s transition team, “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
The House passed a spending bill to keep the government funded for another week. The bill, if it passes the Senate, will give lawmakers another week to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package and coronavirus relief.
The US government and a coalition of states filed parallel antirust lawsuits against Facebook. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who is leading the coalition of states bringing one of the lawsuits, said in a statement, “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”
Canada approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The UK has already started distributing the vaccine to its citizens, and the FDA released an analysis of the treatment yesterday that raised no safety concerns, meaning an approval is likely imminent in the US.
If the bill is also passed by the Senate, it will allow the government to avoid a shutdown on Friday night, when funding is currently set to run out.
The legislation would also give lawmakers additional time to reach an agreement on an omnibus spending bill and a coronavirus relief package.
It’s still unclear whether Congress will be able to strike a deal on coronavirus relief before lawmakers leave for the holidays. There are lingering disagreements over liability protections for employers and state and local funding.
CNN has more details on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes:
After pausing in the months before the election, federal authorities are now actively investigating the business dealings of Hunter Biden, a person with knowledge of the probe says. His father the President-elect is not implicated.
Now that the election is over, the investigation is entering a new phase. Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI, are taking overt steps such as issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, the person with knowledge says.
Activity in the investigation had been largely dormant in recent months due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting overt actions that could affect an election, the person said. ...
Investigators have been examining multiple financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden and associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China, according to two people briefed on the probe.
Some of those transactions involved people who the FBI believe sparked counterintelligence concerns, a common issue when dealing with Chinese business, according to another source.
According to CNN, the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes started in 2018 and is focused on his business dealings in China.
The investigation was put on hold in the immediate run-up to the presidential election because of department policy about not affecting elections, but investigators took additional steps after the race concluded last month.
Here are some more details as @evanperez reported. - Investigation started back in 2018 - Has to do with business dealings in China. -Investigation was put on hold around the election because of DOJ policy. -New investigative actions began after the election.
CNN reporter Evan Perez said he had been in contact with Hunter Biden’s legal team in the last few days to discuss investigative steps being taken in connection to the president-elect’s son.
Biden’s attorneys did not get back to CNN before the transition team released its own statement today announcing the investigation.
On CNN, @evanperez says they'd been in contact with Hunter Biden's attorney in the last few days about reporting on the investigative steps being taken regarding the president-elect's son. His attorneys said they wold get back to them but instead issued statement via transition.
